XV. Remarks on the Geology of the Country between Te Hi cherry 
and Madras . 
By BENJAMIN BABINGTON, Esq. 
OF THE HONORABLE EAST INDIA COMPANY’S SERVICE, MADRAS. 
Communicated by WILLIAM BABINGTON, m.d. 
[Read 15th January, 1819.] 
The road between Calicut and Tellicherry runs near the sea all 
the way, but seldom affords a view of it. 
Comparing this country with the Carnatic near the sea, it is 
infinitely more fertile and populous ; and where the land is not 
cultivated, the bushes and grass are greener. The villages are 
composed of huts not built close together, but each is in its own 
enclosure, which is separated from the next, not only by a fence, 
but by a very deep narrow lane. The commonest trees are cocoa- 
nuts and arekas,* which are the most valuable production of the 
coast. Jack trees,')' and a kind of slender banian, J are also much 
cultivated ; while innumerable forest trees spring up spontaneously, 
round all of which the pepper vine is seen winding its graceful ten- 
drils, and climbing almost to their tops. The Malabar huts are 
remarkably neat : the thatch is thick, and the eaves come very low, 
to keep the violent rains of this coast from the walls, which are 
* Betle nuts, Areca Catechu, Linn. + Artocarpus integrifolia, Linn. £ Ficus ? 
