1841.] Tour in H, H. the Nizam's Territories. 733 



of medicine, with the characters written, or rather scratched, on 

 palmyra leaves. 



With regard to the most eligible spot for cantoning troops, there are 

 several in the granitic country that would answer the purpose, being 

 salubrious and well situated for supplies, &c. The following circumstances, 

 when grouped together, point out a locality well adapted for this purpose. 

 A red, gritty soil ; the neighbourhood of a clear tank ; and the country 

 around open and unbroken. The vicinity of a black granitic hill, adding 

 as it does much to the heat of a station, should be avoided : above all, let 

 the troops be independent of wells for a supply of water, for besides its 

 almost constant bitterness, it will bring on Guinea worm, than which 

 no disease can more effectually cripple or render them inefficient. More 

 difficulty would be experienced in fixing a locality for this purpose in 

 the sandstone country. There is no point, after the junction of the Goda- 

 very and Purneetah, that can be regarded as salubrious during the latter 

 part of the monsoon, and for weeks after. Madhapore, a village ten 

 miles below the Sungum, where a detachment of the Nizam's troops was 

 at one period cantoned, was found to be very unhealthy at certain times ; 

 nor can this excite our surprize, situated as it is between a dense 

 jungle, and the slough and ooze of a muddy river. Chinnore, ten miles 

 above the Sungum, would seem to promise better, the jungle there 

 not being so dense, the river clearer, of much smaller compass, and at a 

 greater distance; while the ground also rises somewhat towards the town. 

 The Brahmin village of Muntini, still higher up the Godavery, would 

 seem preferable to Chinnore in point of salubrity ; but other considera- 

 tions would, in all probability, fix on the latter as the more eligible posi- 

 tion of the two, for troops to be stationed. 



Communications. — The road from Masulipatam to Hyderabad skirts 

 the Circar of Khummum to the south. It is a good road, although 

 liable, as every other in the Peninsula is, to be cut up by flood during 

 the monsoon. The red soil is well fitted for road-making, becoming 

 bound and hard when stamped or trod upon. The black soil is, as 

 elsewhere, less so, but its extent in many parts of Telingana is such, 

 that it might in a great measure, be avoided, in the construction 

 of roads. With the exception of the one above-mentioned, there 

 is no other communication of the kind in Telingana, for it would be a 

 misnomer to apply the term to the rude, unmade paths of the 



