16 PEELIMINAET EEMABKS. 



height of from 6 to 7,400 feet, (viz. the table-land on the 

 top,) the highest point, I>odabet, being 8,760 feet above the 

 level of the sea. They are about 40 miles distant from the 

 nearest point of the Malabar Coast, and about 230 from the 

 sea on the Coromandel side. 



There are four stations at present occupied on the Neil- 

 gherries, OoTACAMirND,CooirooE,KoTERGHBEET, and Jacka- 

 TAiiiA, the new Station for a Queetf s Regiment ; of each of 

 which a short description will be given. 



It is not easy to describe the climate of the Neilgherries, 

 so as to convey an accurate idea of it to a stranger, as there 

 is no other with which I am acquainted, to which it can be 

 strictly and analogically compared. The cold weather or 

 "Winter is like the Spring of the N. of Persia, or the Autumn 

 of the S. of Prance, and the ilionsoon is very nearly a mild 

 Autumn in the S. of England. These two divisions include 

 our whole year, and if I were to say that I consider it, all 

 prejudice apart, as equal to any, and superior to most of the 

 climates I have seen in the course of pretty extensive 

 wanderings, I may be suspected of partiality or exaggeration, 

 I shall, therefore, content myself with an appeal to facts, 

 of the accuracy of which any one may satisfy himself by an 

 examination of the Meteorological Tables in the appendix. 



It appears from them, that the mean annual temperature 

 of Ootacamund is 68'^.68, the greatest anntial range 39°, the 

 maximum being 77°, and the ininimum 38°* the mean annual 

 range is 16°.84, and the mean daily range 17 .01'. The 

 maximum power of the sun's rays is equivalent to 21°.73.t 



* This refers merely to tlie temperature of tlie air ; as on or near the 

 ground, water freezes nearly every night for three months of the year. 



t The Tables in the appendix, distinguished from Dr. Baikie's, wiU 

 exhibit the observations of others. — Ed. 



