OCT. — Mir, 1859-60.] Parvaiipore and Jeypore. 



367 



very wide and deep, showing that a large body of water must pass 

 through it during the rainy season, and as the Nullah of the main 

 valley receives supplies of water from the Nullahs of the numerous 

 smaller transverse valleys, the quantity of water sometimes in 

 them must be great, although the great fall admits of its being 

 carried quickly off. The soil of the valleys and of the bottoms of 

 the Nullahs is largely intermixed with black soil and a yellow 

 ochreish earth, giving to the whole a greyish black colour. In 

 some Nullahs this yellowish earth is largely predominant, and this 

 I have observed to be an indication of the presence of iron in the 

 vicinity. The cultivation on the uplands is of course entirely dry, 

 as the slope is so great from the undulating nature of the country, 

 that the water must immediately run off, and the air is so very dry, 

 and the evaporation so great, that unless on a very vast scale, it 

 would be unprofitable to make Tanks. In the valleys and Nullah 

 beds, however, is cultivated paddy and wheat, and every available 

 square foot of ground is used by the people for this cultivation. 



2. The climate of this elevated region is extremely dry, and 

 evaporation is consequently extremely rapid. Water in a goglet 

 remains all day as though cooled with saltpetre, and after standing 

 all night it is in the morning extremely cold. The mean tempera- 

 ture appears to be from 10 to 15 degrees lower than that of the 

 low country, or of the country in the vicinity of Jeypore. In the 

 morning about sun rise in the beginning of April the thermometer 

 is as low as 60° and the maximum temperature is about 90°, this 

 probably a good deal raised by the hot winds, which blow with 

 considerable intensity for from 4 to 5 hours during the day. 



3. The country for 15 miles is entirely bare of wood, and even 

 the hills have nothing on them, but a very low thin jungle. Their 

 tops are almost universally of the form known as dome shaped, 

 another proof of the absence of granitic rocks which when present 

 in hills in any quantities, give to their summits a sharp serrated 

 form. The whole country has an appearance similar to what one 

 can conceive caused by the wave of an earthquake having at some 

 probably very remote period passed over it. 



4. The air is, as I have said, extremely dry, and from the ex- 

 ceedingly undulating nature of the country, rain water must run 

 off very quickly : all this, added to the entire absence of jungle, 

 must render this tract of country entirely free from Malaria, and 

 Vol. jx. o. s. Vox., tii. n. s. 



