1848.] 



The Neilgherry Mountains. 



75 



The Coouoor Ghaut Coonoor ghaut on the other hand, which 



is the next to the eastward, does not commence 

 its ascent until after 7 miles of bad jungle have been passed through 

 after leaving Matepolliem. It is however the most frequented by- 

 travellers in palanquins and on horseback, as the road on from the 

 summit at the settlement of Coonoor leads more direct from Ootaca- 

 mund than that from Kotergherry, besides having the advantage of a 

 public bungalow conveniently situated near Coonoor, while at Ko- 

 tergherry there is none. The Coonoor ghaut has been very well 

 constructed, especially the lower half of it, which could be ascended 

 by laden carts having an extra pair of bullocks. The upper part has 

 not been so well traced, the gradients being less favorable, and irre- 

 gularly arranged. There is an immense traffic on this ghaut entire- 

 ly by bullocks, which ascend it by thousands on the Ootacamund 

 market day, and indeed almost daily, laden with every description of 

 low country produce and other supplies. Travellers from Madras 

 and the South almost invariably come by this road as the journey 

 from the east coast by Salem is both the most easy, and occupies less 

 time than by Bangalore and Seegoor. 



The Mailoor or Soondaputty £?haut appears 



The Mailoor Ghaut. ^ , ^ 



in former years to have been much frequented, 

 by travellers journeying from the eastern parts of the presidency by 

 Coimbatore to the Hills, from which town there was a road to Soonda- 

 putty, a village at the foot of the southern part of the Neilgherries, 

 though what the direction of it was I am unable to say, as the country 

 between Coimbatore and that part of the base of the Hills appears 

 never to have been surveyed, and is left blank in the Atlas of India. 

 This ghaut which gains the summit of the Hills near " Shoondabet- 

 ta" is onlj'' now used by smugglers and by the Burghers who cultivate 

 land about Mailoor and Keel Koondah, to carry down their produce 

 for barter for clothes, tobacco, salt, &c. The remains of a very good 

 road still exist from the top of this ghaut all the way to Ootacamund, 

 but it has become impassable in many places, owing to bogs having 

 formed in the hollows and closed over it. 



The Sispara or Koon- "^^i^ magnificent ghaut forms the line of com- 

 dah Ghaut. munication between the western coast (Calicut) 



and the Neilgherries, across the " Koondah" mountains. Viewing 

 this latter tract as one likely to become, before long, of the greatest 

 value and importance as a producing country, I should describe llie 



