126 



CAPTAIN NELSON^ KISPOKT ON CERTAIN 



Captain Nelson's Report of the tracts of country on the 

 Kistnah, marked " Unsurveyed and impenetrable" in the 

 Great Trigonometrical Map, Sheet 76 ; with an Intro- 

 duction by the Editor. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The following paper relates to a portion of the district of 

 Kurnool which long remained unexplored by European 

 travellers. 



The writer, Captain Nelson, after 17 years hard service, 

 was invalided in 1853 on account of an injury to the knee, 

 and appointed to command the station of Ongole. His 

 activity and energy found but little scope for development 

 in this duty, and in 1854 he applied to Government for 

 leave to explore " certain portions of country on the banks 

 of the Kistnah river, marked on^the Trigonometrical* map 

 No. 76, as impenetrable." Leave was granted, Captain 

 Nelson penetrated into this almost unknown land, and found 

 that, though now barren and malarious, the country must 

 once have been green with cultivation, and dotted with 

 populous towns and villages. He was particularly struck 

 with Peddaeheroo and Siddapur, a tract of great natural 

 beauty, where ruined forts and cities overlooked tanks of 

 remarkable extent, which had once sufficed to supply thou- 

 sands of acres with water, and thus aided in filling the ex- 

 chequer of a powerful race of chieftains whose memory was 

 still preserved by the neighbouring tribes. 



On his return, Captain Nelson submitted the report to 

 Government which is now published. He was then on the 



Note. — It appears that this is a misnomer for the sheet No. 76, of the 

 Indian Atlas, the details of which are not derived from Trigonometrical 

 Surveys, although the Triangulation of Colonels Lambton and Earnest form 

 its skeleton or framework.-— Ed. 



