90 



Topographical Report on the Neilgherries. 



[July 



for European Infantry and foot Artillery, indeed it would be well suit- 

 ed for the cantonment of all the Europeans now stationed at St. 

 Thomas' Mount, Arnee, Trichinopoly and Cannanore. Materials for 

 building bfirracks are on the spot, or close at hand, as the jungle on the 

 road to Calicut, at the foot of the pass, is full of fine teak, and lime is 

 procurable below ; bricks are easily made on the site of the building, 

 as the adjoining woods supply fuel to burn them. 



The ground will admit of all military exercises, and can be kept dry 

 in wet weather by judicious draining. The position is a commanding 

 one, for, the roads being good and quite practicable now for baggage, 

 as well as troops, as far as Matipolliam in Coimbatore, a force could 

 inarch from the long valley to the most distant part of the hills adjoin- 

 ing the low country in four days, and a body of troops could reach the 

 seacoast by the Koondah ghat and the Beypore river in three days. 



As a station for troops it is of great value, and would serve 

 to renovate the worn constitutions of men very long in India, 

 or to preserve the health of a new regiment uninjured. I speak 

 of regiments, not of individual soldiers ; for lam convinced that no 

 climate will be beneficial to the detached and idle soldier, although 

 the salubrious climate of the hills would, I am confident, be a 

 blessing to the well employed soldier, under the control of his 

 own commanding officer in the society of his comrades. But were a 

 brigade formed of the two branches of European Infantry and foot Ar- 

 tillery, then it would be practicable to allow men sick or convalescent 

 from other regiments to join, doing duty when they should be able ; 

 and after having performed all the ordinary duties of a soldier to the 

 satisfaction of the commanding officer, they might, with the consent of 

 the Surgeon, return to their own corps. The formation of a brigade at 

 the place which I have indicated, strikes every visitor versed in mili- 

 tary affairs at the first sight of this valley, and I mention it as a means 

 of effectually converting it into a preservative and restorative of healthy 

 without which military control and occupation, every system for re- 

 novating the exhausted frames of soldiers must and will fail. The ex- 

 pense of buildings would, in less than ten years, be completely reim- 

 bursed, by the saving of life among the men, whose comfort and health 

 would be promoted by the measure. The only draw-back to this site 

 is the long duration of the rain, as it is more under the influence of the 

 south-west monsoon than the eastern side of these hills. Near Kota- 

 gherry, there is a ridge on which two regiments of Infantry, or two 

 thousand men, could be placed, and have level ground enough for pa- 

 rades and other military exercises, but the supply of water is not quite 



