86 



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



improbable) that their tale was true. Indeed from, all I heard at 

 Malliatoor about the fever, the forests on this side are not so dan- 

 gerous as those particular jungles of Malabar, which we consider 

 really fatal. It is true people talked of fever and men are said 

 occasionally to die of it ; but still it is not dreaded like the Car- 

 coor fiend, or that awful pest at Bowally. And were I to make 

 this trip again, I would not hesitate to spend anight at Attripully. 



At this place the Codacherry river takes a sharp bend, and a \ 

 of a mile above the turn there is a very pretty fall of 60 or 70 feet 

 in height, very picturesque even now, when the water in the river 

 is at its minimum. There is a specimen here of the effect of peb- 

 bles lodging where the rock is somewhat soft, and by the action 

 of the water wearing holes into the river's bed, many feet in depth. 

 The whole bed of the stream is perforated in this manner both 

 above and below the falls ; and several of the pits, after working 

 down some fifteen feet, have broken through and left a flat arch 

 of rock spanning five yards or more, with a large open space be- 

 neath, through which one branch of the river flows. This rill 

 leaves the main stream by one of these tubular perforations and 

 then passes below the rocky arch. It is altogether a curious spot 

 and very picturesque. We stopped here two hours to rest and 

 breakfast ; and an addition was made to our party of two of the 

 watching peons, come by orders of the Malliatoor Ameen to learn 

 the road, and keep the information we obtained, for the use of any 

 one who should wish to try the path hereafter. 



The peons seemed terrified on hearing what they had to do, 

 though one can hardly fancy why men living as these were, in a 

 hut built in the branches of a bamboo bush, deep in a jungle full 

 of elephants, should fear a change so trifling in their home, as. 

 they would find with us. But so it is; beyond this point they 

 had never been, and they dreaded the unknown as much as if 

 they had never left the pavement of a gas lit town. 



As we gained the summit of one low hill upon our line of 

 march, the guide pointed to the flat surface of the rock upon the 

 right hand side and said " Many years ago a Christian Bishop was 

 killed upon that stone." 



