NILGIRI HILLS. 179 



Suggested Improvements. — I may allude to the importance of 

 planting near the cantonment of Wellington, at present unpro- 

 tected from the prevailing strong winds, which blow over the 

 bare hills without any screen. I have solicited the opinion of 

 the medical officers stationed on the hills as to the prospective 

 value of planting generally. This measure might be gradually 

 accomplished at little expense, as there will always be amongst 

 the soldiers several gardeners, so that tree planting may be well 

 and economically carried out. The concurrent testimony of three 

 medical officers is appended. The thriving young plantations 

 around several residences show what may be effected in that 

 locality. The new road from Wellington to Utakamand is almost 

 without a tree throughoutits entire length (12 miles). Much of the 

 ghat is scarped out of rock, and the slope, at many points, is too 

 bare and precipitous for planting, but in the angles and sheltered 

 corners, clumps of trees might be advantageously laid down, 

 which would, in some measure, diminish the force of the wind. 

 Again, on the road from Avalanche to Sispara, there is a long 

 stretch of bleak and treeless country, in which every year a num- 

 ber of Malabar coolies perish benumbed with cold : (additional rest- 

 fa ouses have been ordered for their protection). It has occurred 

 to me that a belt of the Australian Acacias might be useful in 

 sheltering travellers, the seed being sown in quantity and run in 

 with the plough ; in this way a tolerable barrier might be raised 

 against the wind, which, for great part of the year, blows fresh, 

 and sometimes so strong that men can hardly stand. 



Ornamental Planting. — Ornament may seem to be a secondary 

 condition, still it would not be altogether out of place in the vicinity 

 of Utakamand,where, with a little attention in planting and laying 



obtained from India which has been subjected to analysis was a specimen 

 from Thibet. Large tracts, however, of valuable peat bogs occur in the 

 valleys of the Koonda Mountains. As to the character of this peat, its 

 composition has not yet been determined by analysis, but this will speedily 

 be ascertained. The general appearance of the bogs considerably resembles 

 those which occur in Britain ; and although the botanical species which 

 compose them are not identical, the same genera are often present in both — 

 such as, Scirpus, Carex, Parnassia, Utricularia ; others being absent, as Erica, 

 Eriophora, &c. ; the Spagnum prevailing very extensively in the upland 

 marshes of the East as well as in Europe. 



