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Journal of an Expedition [no. 3, new series, 



VI. Journal of an Expedition over the Annamullay Moun- 

 tains for the purpose of examining the Teak Forests, and 

 ascertaining by what line the Timber could best be carried 

 to the Coast. By Captain Frederick Cotton, C. E. 



Left Cochin at 2 J P. M. in a boat with 10 oars, the tide and wind 

 in favor. Reached Allwye before sunset. The river there be- 

 comes shallow, but the boat, with the crew out of it, was taken 

 over the shoals without difficulty, the tide being at the time about 

 half flood. From Allwye to Sheura (4 miles) the river is very 

 shallow, but the boat was hauled over the sand-banks in a foot or 

 15 inches water. At Sheura, the Rajah of Cochin has a bunga- 

 low, and he is now living there for bathing ; which he has the good 

 taste to prefer in fresh water and comparative solitude than in the 

 brackish water and most miscellaneous mob at Allwye the fashion- 

 able watering place of the Cochinese, who at this season emigrate 

 there in great numbers. 



Allwye has one essential as a bathing-place, which is, that the 

 water is so shallow an infant may learn to swim in it without 

 danger;' but beyond this, I see no other advantage in the small 

 stream to make up for its dreadful popularity. Above Sheura the 

 river makes a bend by which at least 3 miles are lost in distance, 

 and as I met with several shallows in different parts of the stream 

 my progress was so slow that it was nearly daylight before I reach- 

 ed Malliatoor. The Allwye river is very much in character like 

 the upper part of the Baypoor and Cotiaddy rivers of Malabar ; 

 but the banks are lower, and the country on either side differs, in 

 the absence of those laterite knolls which occupy so great a portion 

 of that district. 



Malliatoor is a small village belonging to Cochin, on the north 

 side of the river, inhabited by Roman Catholics, whose houses 

 are exceedingly good, as should be their morals also, seeing that 



