133 



Notes on Goomsoor. 



The villages of Calingeah, Coormingeah, Gnngabad and Putlingeab, 

 are situated on the very edge of the ghauts that overhang th€ low 

 country. From the eminences in the vicinity of these villages, the 

 prospect towards the low country is wide and extensive, and presents 

 a vast, interminable forest, on hill and dale, as far as the eye can 

 reach. Before the sun has risen, the view presents a singular ap- 

 pearance, like a vast sea crowded with innumerable islands. The 

 milk white fog every where fills the valleys, and the wooded tops of 

 the hills alone are visible. On looking towards Khondistan, however, 

 the eye is relieved by the open appearance of the country, the emi- 

 nences that stud the plain are free from jungle and present every va- 

 riety of tint, and the valleys are cultivated with luxuriant crops of rice. 



The range of hills west of Calingeah appears to be very lofty, and 

 to give the directions to the various streams in the neighbourhood j 

 and rivulets rising within a short distance of each other pursue their 

 courses in directions altogether different. How far north the range 

 extends and gives directions to the streams I am unable to say, but 

 I observed that 30 miles beyond Calingeah the streams had a direction 

 north-west. 



The stream in the valley of Wodiaghur is extremely rapid, and with- 

 in the distance of a few miles makes several falls. The first is about 

 a mile and a half above Wodiaghur, where the stream runs close to an 

 eminence on its west bank ; and here the bed is rocky, and immense 

 boulders, heaped one above the other, interrupt the noisy descent of 

 the stream for a considerable distance. These appear to have fallen 

 from the adjacent eminence, or rolled down from the mountains high- 

 er up the valley. The sand and gravel, largely impregnated with iron, 

 still adheres to the upper surface of the boulders, and the iron having 

 become , oxidated, th mass is scarcely to be detached. The rock 

 appears to be compact dark granite. 



Farther dow n ti e stream, close to Wodiaghur, the waters roll over 

 several perjieiidicular ledges of rock, each of them five or six feet high, 

 the direciion NE. and SW. nearly, and appear to be the same as the 

 last mentioned rocks, as well as a continuation of rocks close on the 

 edge of the stream, piled in huge masses one over the other. 



Pursuing the course of the stream, a mile farther down, the waters 

 flow slowly and the bed becomes broad and deep having the appear- 

 ance of a canal. This is c-iused by masses of a dark black polished rock 

 running across the bed and forming a dam. The descent over this 

 dyke is rapid, and continues for 30 yards and more. The direction of 



