1838.] 



Topographical Report on the Neilgherries. 



8; 



chiefly a kind of bramble or rapsberry, which grows so thickly as to 

 be generally quite impenetrable ; but it is remarkable that this brush- 

 wood does not extend beyond the borders of the groves, which are as 

 well defined as if they were carefully trimmed in a park. The trees 

 are not deciduous, but of a nature different from those of the plains, in 

 as much as they are not constructed for the resistance of such heat as 

 those in the low country. They are generally of very bright colours, 

 umbrageous and abounding in long slender branches. No fsetid or 

 unwholesome vapours arise from their vicinity, and some, as the 

 Michelia and Rhododendron, are covered with beautiful white or red 

 flowers. Few, however, are good for building, as the wood is not close, 

 and readily cracks and warps. 



The very general distribution of well defined woods and groves gives 

 to the hills a park like appearance, which takes away from their 

 wildness, without diminishing their grandeur. Their extent may be 

 Stated at fifty miles in length, from the bottom of the Coonoor pass in 

 the east, to the bottom of the Koondah ghat m the west; and their 

 width, from the Segoor pass in the north to LoondapuUy in the south, 

 twenty-five miles. Various modes of approach are now opened by 

 ^ the diff"erent ghats ; the principal and most frequented of which 

 are Coonoor and Goodaloor ; the former is wide and in good 

 order, and practicable for wheeled carriages. The other ghats, at the 

 Koondahs, Segoor and Kotagherry, are not yet in good condition, but 

 shortly will be, under the hands of the Sappers. The 'ghats are as 

 follows— Coonoor, leading from Motapolliam in the Coimbatore dis- 

 trict by a gradual ascent of fifteen miles, is 6,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea at the top, and is ten miles from Ootacamund, which dis- 

 tance is over a good road in the cold climate; whereas the road below 

 from six miles from the top is through a thick bamboo jungle. 



Goodaloor is at the foot of the ghat lending to Neddoobetta, six 

 miles in length, rising rapidly a height of 3,500, in the course of 

 which the rise in the road is sometimes one foot in three, which ren- 

 ders this pass impracticable to loaded carts ; this is one of the ap- 

 proaches from Mysore and the Malabar Coast by Manantoddy, and the 

 roads below pass through dense jungles infested with elephants, and 

 peculiarly productive of fatal intermittent and remittent fevers, which 

 can alone be avoided by passing through them during the day, as de- 

 lay in them, even for a single night, almost invariably is attended with 

 fatal consequences to Europeans. To obviate this risk, travellers are 

 obliged to have bearers stationed half way in the jungle, to relieve 

 those which carry them, coming or going ; and the bearers themselves 



