1845.] from Pondicherry to Beypoor. 779 



the work, probably of some French engineer in the service of Hyder, 

 who is said to have built the fort itself, in 1766, but at all events 

 remodelled it. 



The parapet is high, pierced with loopholes for musketry, and the 

 bastions with embrasures for guns. I counted about forty guns, rusty 

 and apparently unservicable, lying about the place. 



Palghaut is now the head-quarters of a regiment of Native Infantry : 

 It is the key of the Coimbatore and Salem districts, from the western 

 coast. 



It used to be noted for the manufacture of furniture. Rice is the 

 staple article of cultivation. The mountains in the vicinity can supply 

 large quantities of teak and other valuable timber. The pepper and 

 card am um flourish on their sides and in their defiles; and their 

 forests shelter herds of bison and elk, whose horns form an article of 

 traffic. 



Palghaut before Hyder's time, was under a Wair Raja, who was in 

 some measure feudatory to the Hindu Rajas of Mysore. 



On their downfall, it fell into Hyder's hands, who strengthened it 

 as a Military post, commanding the only communication with Mala- 

 bar from Coimbatore. 



It was early seized by the English in their wars with Hyder ; 

 evacuated 1768, by Lieut. Bryant; retaken 17^3, by Col. Fullarton ; 

 again fell into the hands of Tippoo, but retaken in 1790, by Col. Stuart. 



The Pass of Palghaut, as might be anticipated, exerts a considerable 

 influence over the meteorology of the places to the East and West of it. 

 In the SW. monsoon while the table lands of the Balaghat, and the 

 plains of the Carnatic, sheltered by the great wall of the Western 

 Ghauts, are burnt up with the rays of a scorching sun, the places im- 

 mediately to the East of this wide gap are favoured with a portion of 

 the Gooling showers and breezes which are wafted through this moun- 

 tain opening over the forests of Malabar from the Indian ocean. 



On the other hand, it serves as an outlet to those furious storms 

 from the Eastward, which sweep the Bay of Bengal, and after tra- 

 versing the peninsula, burst forth through it to the Indian sea. 



Vaniencolam. — This is a village in South Malabar, about twenty- 

 four miles and a half W. by N. from Palghaut. Like most Malabar 

 villages in the interior, it consists of huts in separate enclosures, 



