18386. ] Geography and Travels. 265 
again as the Anamalai or Elephant hills, and farther south, the Tra- 
vancore hills. These are a true mountain range, rising directly on 
all sides from the lowlands, and are steepest on their eastern: 
slopes. The highest measured point, Anamudi or Elephant’s brow, 
is 8840 feet above the sea, and the loftiest known peak in South- 
ern India. This range, called also the Southern ghats, ends at 
Cape Comorin. To the east of the Anamalai hills lies the lofty 
plateau of the Palani hills, in two steps, the upper 7000 feet high. 
Groups of similar but minor masses of hills are met with at inter- 
vals eastwards and northwards, surrounding the lowlands of 
Coimbatore and Salem, perhaps once the seat of a former inland 
sea. South of the Palanis is a large tract of mountainous wilder- 
ness, occupied only by wild animals and wild men of the lowest 
types, who go unclothed, and feed on such fruits and roots as they 
can scratch up with their fingers. They can make a fire, but sel- 
dom do so, and gather cardamoms, honey and other wild produce 
to exchange with their more civilized neighbors for salt, grain, 
and a little cloth to adorn their women. There are no harbors 
worthy of the name on the usually low Malabar coast, but a chain 
of lagoons affords inland communication for several hundred 
miles, pe Comorin is a low rocky promontory. Once there. 
was a harbor, town, and pearl market, but now nothing is left but 
the temple of Kanya Kumari, the “ Virgin Maid,” still a resort 
for devout Hindus, Korkai, the Kolchoi of Greek geographers, 
an emporium 2000 years ago, is now three miles inland, its suc- 
cessor Kayal (the lagoon), mentioned by Marco Polo, is now 
deserted by the sea, and the present port of Tuticorin promises to 
be in turn silted up. All the rivers of Southern India tend to 
shift their mouths northwards from the action of the ocean rollers. 
The Coromandel coast is marked by a line of sand-hills with 
lagoons here and there on the landward side, and there seems to 
be an advanced line of coast in course of formation several miles 
out to sea. There is much coral in the Gulf of Manar. Besi 
the changes occurring on this coast from constant causes, storm 
waves have destroyed many ancient cities and ports. 
A atic News—A ruined city, hitherto unknown, has been 
found in Adana, Asia Minor, not far from Tarsus, near the route 
from Sélef-Ké to Karaman. Sarcophagi like those of Lycia exist 
almost intact. Residents of Siberia are organizing an explor- 
ation to investigate for five years the ethnology and social economy: 
of that vast region. Young men will be distributed over the 
country for that purpose. A railway from Ekaterinburg to Kam- 
ishoff is completed; and the canal between the Obi and Yenisei 
Ul probably be ready for navigation at the latest in the spring 
A 1887. Sibiriakoff has established a line of steamers on the 
beet between Lake Baikal and the Yenisei——M. Daniloff 
tee that he has found the point of bifurcation of the Oxus 
the Amu Daria and the Uzboi or Unguz.—A recent French 
