1836.] 



Neelgherries and Koondahs. 



275 



larlythatof the extensive undulated table-land, of which theDoodabetta, 

 group to the east, and the Koondah and Himigala ranges to the west, 

 are the boundaries. I say undulated table-land, because such is the 

 appearance of that tract of the country, seen from such a height, 

 although many of these apparent undulations have thousands of feet 

 of elevation. 



On my pony I ascended, by zigzags the southern side of the Ava- 

 lanche hill, and having rode within a few yards of the summit, I 

 walked up the remaining distance. The view from it is the non plus 

 ultra of this group ; but the spot which struck me most was the awful 

 recess to the north, intersected by deep ravines and abrupt escarpments, 

 which join the Avalanche range to that of the Himigala. This wild 

 scene is exceedingly striking, and I thought it the most romantic in the 

 Neelgherries, until I visited Mookoorty, where is to be seen the most 

 inconceivably grand mountain scenery in all these hills, formed by the 

 termination, north, of this same group of the Koondahs. 



The rock composing the Avalanche hill is hornblende slate in the 

 declivities (No. 117), which passes into sienitic granite, and to 

 true granite at the summit (No. 118), with much mica. In ascending 

 from the bungalow to the gorge, I observed basaltic dykes, in more than 

 one place, and thick beds of pegmatite (No. 119). But when we ascend 

 from the gorge to the summit of the Avalanche hill, the greatest num- 

 ber of the projecting rocks is granite, mica having entirely replaced 

 hornblende. There is another remark to be made, regarding the com- 

 position of the rocks of this group ; that, except the few loose boulders 

 at the foot of the hill near the bungalow, they contain hardly any 

 garnets. 



Descending from the summit, when more than half way down, I 

 turned to the left to examine the masses of rocks scattered at the foot 

 of the Avalanche. Many of them were granite, but the most numerous 

 were of hornblende slate. Passing the rivulet, which comes down from 

 the Avalanche, and going west a hundred yards, we meet with a basal- 

 tic dyke of moderate thickness, having a N. and S. direction. From 

 the top of this hillock where the dyke is, looking north, we see in the 

 opposite hill of the Himigala range, a pretty cascade, which, although 

 of no great dimensions, yet, having such stupendous scenery as a back 

 ground, and the water precipitating itself down eleven steps formed by 

 the strata of hornblende slate, making as many cascades, has, if not a 

 grand, at least a romantic effect. 



Judging from the numerous rolled masses of basalt in the bed of the 

 Koondah river, into which the cascades fall, trap must be of frequent 

 occurrence in these hills which join the Avalanche with the Himigala 

 range. And, apropos of this last word, is the name derived from the 

 same root as Himalaya ? It Xi also curious to observe- the coincidence 



