2S0 Statistical Observations on the Vurragherries, [April 



IV. — Statistical Observations on the Vurragherries, or Pulney Moun- 

 tains.— By Robert Wight, m. d. Surgeon. 



{Communicated by the Madras Government). 



The Vurragherries or, as they are now more frequently denominated, 

 Pulney mountains, are situated at, and partly close the opening of the 

 valley of Dindigul, having a direction from east to west. Their length 

 in that direction, according to Captain Ward, who surveyed and drew 

 up an elaborate memoir* regarding them, is fifty-four miles, with a 

 medium breadth of fifteen ; their superficial area being calculated at 

 798§ square miles. The plain from which they rise, as measured at 

 Davedanaputty within a few miles of their base, is about 1,100 feet 

 above the level of the sea, and presents, a few feet (8 to 10) under the 

 surface, a bed of kunkur, varying, in different places where it has been 

 penetrated in digging wells, from ten to twenty feet in thickness, over- 

 lying a bed of mouldering gneiss which crumbles into soil as soon as 

 exposed to the air. Permamallie their highest peak, at least so far as 

 I had an opportunity of determining, is nearly 7,000 feet above the 

 plain, or about 8,000 above the sea, and may be estimated from a 

 variety of measurements which I made, to rise from 1,500 to 2,000 feet 

 above the average level of the higher range of hill villages. This 

 point, however, 1 was prevented determining accurately by circum- 

 stances which I could not control. The most elevated village, or 

 hamlet rather, I saw, that of Sembaganoor, is above 5,500, and perhaps 

 may be about 5,600 feet above the sea — all the others appear to be on 

 a much lower level. These hills may, according to their degree of 

 elevation, be divided into two zones or regions; the lower characterized 

 by the abundance of arboreous vegetation or jungle, with which it is 

 covered; the upper by the greater predominance of herbaceous or 

 grassy vegetation. The jungle in the upper zone is confined to patches 

 on the sides of the hills, and in the bottoms of the deep glens, or rather 

 gullies, by which the ridges are separated. These ridges are generally 

 rounded on the top, with at first gently sloping sides, which gradually 

 "become steeper as they descend, and near the bottom are in many 

 places quite precipitous. The rocks of which they are composed, so 

 far as my observation extends, are all stratified, even to the extreme 

 peak of Permamallie, and there the strata are nearly if not quite ver- 

 tical. The principal rock composing this immense mass is gneiss, inter- 

 stratified with quartz rock and traversed by veins of felspar. In many 

 places it is seen projecting above the surface firm and unaffected by the 

 weather, but more generally it is decayed to a considerable depth ; and 



* This memoir will be published jn our next number, accompanied by"a map of tho 

 Hills. 



