112 



Topographical JReport on the Neilgherries. 



[JULT 



probability, they would have been forced to proceed to the Cape of 

 Good Hope or Europe, but were cured by a timely resort to this place ; 

 and it is on this account tliat the hills are so valuable, the climate be- 

 ing calculated to check the beginnings of most Indian complaints, more 

 i*avticularly that general debility and depression, without serious dis- 

 ease of any particular organ. 



Here 1 would observe that the value of the Neilgherries will never 

 be duly appreciated, until the means of coming to them be improved. 

 1 particularly allude to good roads and conveyances, which, if properly 

 established, would allow invalids to travel at the rate of eight or ten 

 miles an hour, in easy carriages, and thus admit of ail who most require 

 it coming here for a portion of every year, particularly the hotter months . 

 In short to enable all within a circle, whose radius is six hundred miles' 

 to come here without difficulty at the rate of a hundred miles per diem. 

 The benefit of such a plan would be immense, particularly to the Mad- 

 riis and Bombay army, to whom such an extended tract of coast is open. 

 Steam vessels might readily ply from Calcutta and Bombay to Cali*^ 

 cut, and thence the Koondahs are but fifty miles Irom the sea shore. 

 The roads to the various points on the Coromandel and Malabar Coast 

 being improved, and steamers for coast communication being establish-^ 

 ed, the foregoing plan will not be a chimera, but a means of relaxation 

 from the fatigues of duty, cind renovation of the impaired frames of 

 many who cannot afford to return to Europe, and who are compelled 

 lo drag on a listless and unprofitable existence in the uncongenial cli- 

 male of the low country. 



The Population in the Neilgherry Tulook Zillah of Malabar, 



Castes. 



Men. 



Women. 



Total. 





264 



163 



427 







1979 



3971 





163 



186 



349 





92 



104 



196 





90 



87 



177 





89 



85 



174 





9 



12 



21 





60 



48 



108 





138 



162 



300 





2897 



2826 



5723 





1964 





7687 



