134 



A Visit to Cumbaucum-droog, 



[July 



XIII. — A Visit to Cumbaucum-droog, a remarkable Table Land near 

 Madras. — By Colonel Monteith, k. l. s., of the Madras Engineers* 



The following account of an excursion to the range, or rather cluster, 

 of hills called Cumbaucum-droog, a ridge connected with the well known 

 Nagary hills*, perhaps will interest the readers of the Madras Journal 

 of Scieiice and Literature, as their jagged outlines and blue -summits-, 

 are daily before our eyes, but are rarely, if ever, visited ; indeed, they 

 may be said to be totally unknown to the inhabitants of Madras. A 

 very correct survey, it is true, has been made, and charts of most of 

 the principal mountains are to be found in the Surveyor General's 

 Office, but nothing that I am aware ot, has ever been before the public^ 

 on a subject of no small interest to the inhabitants of this great city, 

 who seek that change of climate and cool weather at a distance, which 

 they may command at their own doors. 



For a long time I had determined on visiting these hills, but one 

 cause or other delayed it till January 1834. 



1 followed the road of the Red Hills (which is rather out of the 



* These hills, which seem to be ridges diverging from the eastern 

 ghauts, are known in various localities by the names of the places 

 situated near them, thus we have the Tripetti hills, Nagari hills, Ca» 

 lastri hills, Ramgherry-droog, Cumbaucum-droog, and many others. 

 "We learn, also, from Lieut.Garling's Memoir, that the latter place was 

 called KulUed-droog, from the village of Kullxed, when it belonged to 

 the Calastri Rajah. The following is extracted from a Memoir on the 

 survey of this part of the country by Lieutenant Garling, dated 1810. 

 —Editor. 



" About this part of the country, the ghauts spread to the eastward, 

 and form a deep mass of immense mountains. In this particular part, 

 a broad valley penetrates amongst these mountains, and is continued by 

 two large breaks to the table land of the Ceded Districts — the Hills, on 

 the southern side of the valley, extending themselves to the eastward 

 along the middle of this tract, with but little general diminution of 

 height, to within 26 miles of the coast, when they have a sudden fall, 

 and spread out by lower hills and slopes to the edge of the Pulicat 

 lake. These hills divide the country into two parts, the southern of 

 which is a highly cultivated valley, through which flows the Narna* 

 veran and Corteliar rivers ; the northern part is a plain of very great 

 extent. The hills on the north side of the valley before mentioned, do 

 not proceed far to the east, before they turn off to the N. W. bound* 

 ing the plain by a steep wall ; the general height of these hills varies 

 from 2 to 3000 feet above the level of the sea." 



