1837.] 



and Kunnundaven Mountains* 



289 



stones. Iron ore may be procured from the sandy beds of the streams j 

 it may be obtained also from some kinds of black stones, but no ad- 

 vantage is taken of either. 



Manufactures. —At Unjeenad on the west, some coarse black sugar, 

 (jaggery), is manufactured in some quantities : ghee or clarified butter 

 is made at all the hill villages, all, however, is consumed by the inha- 

 bitants, beside the above there is no other article manufactured 

 on them. 



Exports and Imports. — From the eastern portion of these mountains 

 the exports to the plains may be classed under the following heads : 

 turmerick, vendium or fennugreek, mustard, castor oil nuts, honey and 

 wax, plantains and other fruits from the central parts ; garlic is the 

 chief export, with some mustard, wheat, wussumbu or flag root ; from 

 Unjeenad, paddy and small quantities of garlic are exported into Coim- 

 batore. The imports to the central parts are rice (in case of a bad 

 harvest), and to all parts of the mountains, apparel, household furniture, 

 implements of husbandry, salt, and every other article requisite, are im- 

 ported by merchants ; the inhabitants also come down to the plains at 

 stated periods, and purchase or barter for such necessaries as they may 

 have occasion for. 



Soil and Productions. — Scarce any difference is observed in the nature 

 of the soil of these mountains, it being, in general, a stiff red clay, in- 

 clining to brown, and in the more moist situations it is a fine black 

 mould ; in the marshes, a deep black clay, the effluvia from which is 

 considered unwholesome 5 it is excessively poor in lofty situations and 

 more so in the central parts. The productions are rice, tennay, or the 

 Indian panicle, garlic, mustard, wheat, tovarray, a species of grain 

 similar to oats, to the east, turmerick, fennugreek, also several sorts of 

 dry grains, as shamay, vurhaghu, raggy, &c. together with plantains, 

 castor oil nuts, honey and wax : in Unjeenad some sugar-cane and 

 beetle. The several sorts of dry grains produced in these regions, 

 are only equal to the consumption, with the exception of such as are 

 particularized under the head of exports. 



Cattle and other animals. — These do not differ from those of the 

 plains in their make or size, but appear on the whole to be in better 

 condition, from the superiority of their pastures. The cows produce 

 tut small quantities of milk, and of an inferior quality, owing, it is 



