2 RECORDS OF THE BOTANICAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 
To the South there is no clear topographical feature dividing the tract 
under survey from the Travancore ranges which culminate with Anaimudi 
Peak, the highest point in Southera India with an elevation of approxt- 
mately 8,800. feet. 
The higher hills are quite trackless, except for occasional game paths. 
Tn the dense evergreen woods one has to cut a way at the expense of con- 
siderable labour and it is very easy to los? one’s sense of direstion in these 
featureless forests, 
With the exception of three roads, running more or less north and 
south, and the system of roads within the plantations, the com nunica 
tions do not permit of wheeled traffic. The conveyance of bagzage has 
to be arranged for either by elephants or by porterage. 
Roughly two-fifths of the area drains eastwards into the Bay of Bengal 
by the Channel of the Amaravati riverand its tributaries; itself an affluent 
of the Kaveri. The remainder-sends its waters into the Indian Ocean, 
either, as already detailed, by way of the Ali-ar or through the Tekkadi-ar, 
Periyar and Sholai-ar, all three of which flow through the State of Cochin. 
Geology. ‘The geological formation is metamorphic, the rock being 
granitic gneiss. The absence of lime is remarkable. 
The soils vary from extremely poor and shallow, especially in the ary 
eastern region where they have been subjected'to much wash and erosion, 
to extremely rich and deep in the moister localities and where age-loag 
virgin forest has occupied and enriched the land. 
The soil in the moist, deciduous western fore 
become water-logged in the low-lying places. : 
The planting zone, between 3,000 and 5,000 feet, where the median 
evergreen type of forests prevails, has a'rich porous soil, fall of organic 
matter, ‘ BOE 
Sts is very clayey and apt to 
“There are large expanses of bare rock ; here a few hardy plants manage 
_ to exist in the fissures where small accumulations of soil and debris have 
lodged. . 
. : : é 8 : 
: Rainfall and Climate, There are remarkable variations in the rainfall 
and the climate with regard to the smalluess of the area compris2d (about 
_43 miles from east to west and an averaze of 12 miles from north to 
OS eae tata ae pe : 
The hills intercept the south-west monsoon winds that sweep . across 
the Cochin forests, consequently the rainfall on the south-western slopes is 
considerable, averaging from 120 to 150 inches in the year. On the north- 
West the Neliampatti Hills have already taken toll of the rain clouds and 
