36 



Topographical Report on the Neilgherries. 



[July 



cioiisly placed on the top on a hill, it is exposed to the full force of 

 both monsoons, especially the south-west. 



The prisoners in general are very healthy, although their work of 

 necessity exposes them to great vicissitudes of weather, and they are 

 ill provided with clothing to resist the cold ; their being sentenced to 

 imprisonment here is considered a great hardship and additional pu- 

 nishment. There is no court here, but they are all sent from the ad- 

 joining zillahs of Coimbatore and Calicut. Each man is provided with 

 two cumblies, one of which he wears while at work and the other is 

 reserved for his return to wrap himself in dry. The hours of work are 

 from seven in the morning to four in the evening, with an hours rest at 

 noon. Their occupation is to mend the roads and bridges, and make 

 new ones whenever required within the limits of the cantonment. 



They have lately completed a choultry near the bazaar, for the ac- 

 commodation of native travellers, who heretofore have been obliged to 

 seek shelter where they could find it, and consequently many unfor- 

 tunate coolies have lost their lives from exposure to the cold, which is 

 intense at night, in both monsoons, when acting on the almost naked 

 bodies of poor people who have perhaps the same morning been in 

 the scorching heat of the Carnatic, and have had but little food during 

 their tiresome journey up the pass. This choultry is large and inclos- 

 ed on three sides, having a good space in the centre for bullocks and 

 carts, and as long as it stands will be of great benefit to those who have 

 no other place of shelter in a climate where it is so greatly needed. 



The bazaar at Ootacamund is generally well supplied with all the 

 produce of the lov/ country, at fair prices, and also with all the culi- 

 nary vegetables before mentioned. Bread has hitherto been made of 

 wheat grown in the low country, and leavened with the fermented 

 juice of the palm-tree, but wheat is now beginning to be generally cul- 

 tivated, and the quantity produced equals the demand for the supply of 

 bread to the inhabitants. No corn has been yet made, or at least ap- 

 plied to the purpose of leavening bread, although there can be no doubt 

 that malting and brewing might be carried on profitably from Novem- 

 ber to March and Jane to September, at least nine months in the year, 

 during w^hich, in a well built house, the thermometer would never 

 rise to 70° of Fahrenheit. The hop, I feel confident, could be cul- 

 jivated in various places, as there are sites with every aspect, and 

 every degree of elevation and difference of temperature, which would 

 insure success in many parts of the hills, and if brewing were thus 

 undertaken by persons having capital enough to build the requisite 

 houses, and set the business going on a sufficiently extensive scale. 



