Notes on the Physiography of Southern Author(s): B. R. Branfill Source: Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography, New Monthly Series, Vol. 7, No. 11 (Nov., 1885), pp. 719-735 Published by: Wiley on behalf of The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1801408 . Accessed: 12/06/2014 20:39

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This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NOTES ON THE PH7SI0GRAPHY"OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 719 land, if the rivers of themselves are sometimes apt to rnake changes for the worse. As they make their way across the broad low plains of India, which they have helped to make, they let us see the wealth of their resources for good or evil. Oontrolled and guided, led and regulated, they serve to show instructively the power of man's influence on the physical as well as the political geography of a eountry.

Notes on the Physiography of Southern India. By Col. B. B. Bkanfill, late Deputy-Superintendent, Survey of India. (Read to the GeographicalSection of the BritishAssociation at Aberdeen, September11th, 1885.) The part of India on which I have been invited to offer some notes, culled from the recollection of many years' service passed there, lies to the south of lat. 15?. It is the apex of the Peninsula, and coincides nearly with the Madras Presidency of British India. It is a beautiful eountry, displaying a charming variety of surface and scenery. Its elimate, though tropical, is mild and generally agreeable, being almost insular, and subject to the breezy influences of the two monsoons. It is an epitome of all India, in its lofty hills and extensive plains, its flooding rivers and dwindling lakes, its fertile flats and sterile wastes, its tropical jungles and its scrubby wilderness. Southern India is an interesting field of observation for the scientific inquirer, and especially for the physiographer, on account of the elements of physical change it displays in ceaseless activity. For, we have first, the decomposing and disintegrating power of the sun's rays, vertical here twice in the year; secondly, we have the long continued strong winds, that scour the surface and transport immense volumes of dust to great distances in the air, and, by means of the waves, along the sea-shore; and thirdly, the dissolving and denuding force of a tropical rainfall. Frost is only known upon the high plateaux and mountains, and the violent earthquake is almost unknown, but the agencies just mentioned seem fully adequate, in process of time, to convert a vast plateau of igneous rock into the subdued and diversified area we now behold. For our present purpose, Southern India may be divided into three tracts or regions. Firstly, the mountainous region of the Ghats, including the higher tablelands, and the great upland plains of , eontained between the brows of the Western and . Secondly, the lowlands of the Malabar coast, all that narrow tract of moist seaboard between the foot of the and the Arabian Sea ; and, thirdly, the comparatively wide and dry lowland plains of the Carnatic, between the eastern foot of the Ghats and the Bay of Bengal. The first is the highland tract, wide in the north, but tapering to a

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 720 NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN INDIA. point at Cape Comorin, that completely separates the other two. The latter differ more, however, from the effects of the seasons than they do from their geographical position. The year in Southern India has three distinct seasons: the south-west monsoon, from May to September; the north-east monsoon from October to February; and the hot season, from March till May, between the two monsoons. The term monsoon is our rendering of the Arabic word mausim, which properly means season. The south-west monsoon is the most striking and beneficent fact of the climate, for it brings the rains, that revive all living things, when almost parched to death by the hot season, and that fill the rivers and lakes, which fertilise the land and temper the ardent rays of the vertical sun. The amount of the rainfall is very uncertain, and occasionally there is little or none, except on the Ghats. The dates of its commencement and ending are equally uncertain; but the icind of this monsoon is most regular in its onset, force, and continuance. It blows with the force of a strong breeze for four months, from May to September, all over the Arabian Sea, from the south-west. Within 80 or 100 miles of the west coast it becomes a westerly wind, and so continues across the Peninsula. On first striking the coast and ascending the abrupt barrier-wall of the Ghats, it loses its excess of moisture, which falls in torrents of rain on their sides and summits, until it has passed the crest of the heights. It then continues its eastward course, as a cool, moist breeze at first, but gradually gets warmer and drier, until at last it becomes a fierce hot wind, a veritable sirocco. In the Bay of Bengal, the wind of this season becomes southerly, and afterwards blows up the valley of the Ganges as a south-east or easterly wind, almost diametrically opposite to its course over Southern India. The wind of the south-west monsoon is usually supposed to be the great continental sea-breeze of Southern Asia, induced by the excessive rarefaction of the air over the interior and most heated portions of the continent; and so, doubtless, it is; but in the marked deviations from the normal direction, just noted, we see an anomaly, the reason for which is not so obvious. The south-west monsoon dies out fitfully in September, and after a short interval, is succeeded by the north-east monsoon, which is supposed to be only the normal trade wind. It is ushered in by storms and heavy falls of rain, which replenish the rivers and tanks, to the east of the Ghats, and render the cultivation of all the unirrigated plains possible. The north-east monsoon usually lasts till February, accom- panied by some spells of rainy weather, which rapidly bring to per- fection the cold-weather crops, as they are called. Of cold there is really none, except on the mountains, but the day temperature is very pleasantly cool, and the nights are quite chilly.

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In February the cool northerly breezes fail, and the days get warm. The cold-weather crops are harvested, and all its vegetation rapidly dries up. The succeeding hot-weather months, March, April, May, may be briefly but fitly described as hot, hotter, hottest. But the heat of Southern India is seldom very great or oppressive, being tempered, at first by the land- and sea-breezes, which prevail at this time of year, and later by occasional dust-storms and thunder-storms, frequently accompanied by heavy showers, which cool and clear the hazy atmosphere most agreeably. These occur so regularly between the middle of April and the middle of " May, that they are often termed the petty monsoon" rains; a mis- nomer, of course, except that they are thought seasonable at a time when the regular monsoon breezes are out of season. They are rather accidental tornadoes, and are by the natives termed tufdn, our word " * typhoon." The best time for visiting Southern India is from September to March, but the naturalist, the explorer, and the physical observer, need not be deterred from making a prolonged tour, as, by taking advantage of the variety of climate offered by the hill tracts, the upland plateaux, and the lowland plains, and visiting each at its best season, the whole year round may be spent in a comparatively cool and enjoyable climate, without incurring any serious danger or discomfort. Without laying down any fixed time or precise route, we may advan- tageously go over some of the most interesting physical features of the country, as follows, commencing with the extreme north-west of the country under notice, Let us proceed by sea down the west coast of India, merely noting the endless panorama of beautiful scenery; a surf-beaten shore-line, sometimes bold with dark rocks or bright-red laterite cliffs; sometimes lightened with a brilliant streak of shining yellow sand, but always backed up by the luxuriant foliage of endless groves of coco-nut palm and evergreen bush, completely concealing the narrow belt of lowlands to the very foot of the Ghats, which raise their dark cliffs and lofty summits, at a few miles distance inland, their skirts and valleys clothed with primeval forest. The antiquity of the forest on this coast is proved by the petrified trees which are found submerged under the sea; and an account was published some years ago in the volumes of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bombay, of petrified trees having been found at the bottom of a shaft, sunk many fathoms through the rock (laterite and trap) on this coast; and curiously enough, if I recollect aright, some of them were marked by notches and cuts that exactly resembled the cuts of an axe! If so, they must have been the marks of Parasu-Rama

* Compare the Greek word rvty&v,*'a whirlwind"; also the Chinese " tafung, greatwind." No. XI.?Nov. 1885.] 3 b

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 722 NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERNINDIA. himself (Eama of the axe), the traditional conqueror, or reclaimer, of these lowlands. The only sheltered harbour for ships on this coast during the south- west monsoon, is that of Karwar; but we may now go a little farther south with safety, and land at Honawar, a small fair-weather port of great beauty and interest, from its extensive wooded estuary, and the extraordinary surf formed on the bar, at the ebb of spring tides. A short journey by land or river brings us to the Ghdt or pass by which we must now ascend to the Mysore Malndd, or hill district. Mala signifies hill in the South Indian languages. We have it in the name Malahar, and as the commonest suffix to the names of hills, all over Southern India, as in Anamalai, the elephant hills. Ndd signifies district or eountry, as in Wainad, the open district. The crest of the Ghats is here about its lowest, being only some 2000 feet high, and the escarpment is broken down and less precipitous here than it is to the southward; this pass therefore is an easy one. The passes generally between the Mysore highlands and the west coast have been much improved of late, and now afford great facilities for enjoying the splendid scenery, and for examining the geology of the eountry. On this latter subject I shall merely state that the rocks are hypogene schists, overlying a granitic base, which crops out here and there in huge bold masses. Gneissic rocks abound, and a bed of laterite or iron-clay-stone, is a common superficial formation both above and below the Ghats. The Gersappa waterfalls are near the head of this pass. The river , after draining some 800 square miles of well-watered eountry, leaps down over a precipice more than 800 feet high at one bound into a deep pool at its base. During the rainy season the river at the falls is some 300 yards wide and 20 feet deep, but little of the cataract can then be seen for the dense cloud of spray in which the whole gorge is shrouded. The best time for a visit is about January, when it is broken into several beautiful cascades, and the entire chasm may be studied, from the top to the bottom of the abyss. The Sharavati is one of the very few streams of any size rising above the Ghats and flowing westward into the Arabian Sea. The summits of the hills in this neighbourhood run up to 4000 feet, but on reaching the tableland we see that the Western Ghats are not, properly speaking, a range of mountains at all. Yiewed from the west coast they do appear like grand mountains, but from the eastward, at some distance inland, the line of their summits looks comparatively horizontal, and suggests rather the idea of a battlemented parapet or retaining wall to the plateau, with long ridges of gentle slope leading up to the battlements. This feature, a long ridge of easy slope ending abruptly in a precipice, has an apt local appellation, Kudure-Mulch, or

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horse-head. The splendid cliff-summit ofthis name, overlooking Man- galore, with its precipitous face, over 6000 feet in height, crested with a mane of primeval forest, is the best known instance; but there are others, and this peculiar formation is familiarly known to the natives under this name. The Eastern Ghats, in like manner, are the castellated parapet of the escarpment of our great central tableland on its eastern and southern sides; but tbere is no such well-marked line of precipices as on the west, and the broken ground between summit and base is generally much wider. It is rugged and picturesque, but cannot compare with the Western Ghats for beauty or grandeur. The copious rainfall of the south-west monsoon does not reach the Eastern Ghats, and they are therefore comparatively dry, barren, and devoid of forest, or only sparsely covered with stunted trees, brush wood, and grass. The tableland of Mysore, between the brows of the Western and Eastern Ghats, is by no means flat, but undulating from 2000 to 3000 feet above the sea, and its surface is diversified by numerous abrupt boulder-like masses of granitic rock, scattered singly or in groups over the country. Some of them are enormous unbroken boulder stones, projecting from 1500 to 2000 feet above the surrounding plain. There seems a decided tendency for the groups of rocks to arrange themselves in lines, running north and soutb, or parallel to the lines of the Ghats, and for their steeper face to be presented to the east. The most prominent of the single rocks have been fortified and occupied as the refuge of harassed tribes, or as the strongholds of robber chieftains, " under the name of durgd or droog (which signifies difficult of access ") until our own times. The entire surface of the plateau has a slight fall, generally from west to east, with a watershed in the middle running in the same direction, by which the drainage runs northwards to the Kistna, and south ward s to the Cauvery, except the easternmost part of the plateau, which drains directly eastward in several small rivers through the many narrow valleys and gorges of the Eastern Ghats. With the exception of the Sharavati, the drainage of the western highlands, from the very brow of the precipices, is to the eastward. The northern portion is drained by the Tunga-Bhadra and their tributaries, north-eastwards to the Kistna, and the southern portion, south-eastwards by the Cauvery and its affluents. The larger rivers are perennial, but having for the most part cut for themselves wide and deep rocky channels, are not very available for irrigation or navigation. This is especially the case in the northern parts, but there the famous black cotton-soil plains are found, which produce a crop yearly without irrigation. The smaller streams, on the other hand, have been utilised for this purpose to the utmost extent. 3 b 2

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A succession of dams has been constructed across each river bed, by which each valley is converted into a series of reservoirs for the storage of water; the waste from the upper going to supply the next, and so on. This system has been carried out until, it is believed, no room has been left for a new dam, except where an old one has once been made. If one of the tanks near the top of a series is breached during heavy rain, the whole of the chain below is nearly certain to be breached also, and an entire valley thus suddenly deprived of irrigation, until the breaches can be repaired. There are nearly 40,000 such tanks in Mysore (the largest some 20 miles in circumference), with artificial irrigation channels, aggregating 1200 miles in length. The river Cauvery () is a splendid instance of nature's bounty utilised. It rises amidst the most magnificent forest-clad heights of the Western Ghats, within a few miles of the west coast, in the little high- land principality of Coorg, whence it emerges a full-blown river on the plains of Mysore, nearly 300 yards wide and 20 or 30 feet deep. In its course through the province it is bridled by twelve dams, and obliged to irrigate every part of its valley to which its waters can possibly be led. The old capital of Mysore, Seringapatam (or Srirangapatnam), stands on an island in this river. Abandoned since the fall of Tipu Saib in 1799, the place has relapsed into a state of nature, and is now a pestilential wilderness. Thirty miles lower down the river is the site of another and much more ancient capital, called Talkad. The city of Talkad is mentioned as a great city of the Kongu or Chera kings, in the third century of our era ; as fortifiedby the same dynasty in the sixth century, and as the capital of another dynasty in the tenth ; it changed masters again in the four- teenth, and was finally conquered by the Mysore Raja in the seventeenth century. On this occasion the widow of the late ruler, before drowning herself in the river, is believed to have uttered a curse against the conquerors, that they should never beget an heir to succeed them, and that the city itself should be smothered by sand. This curse has been but too well fulfilled?at all events the city has been overwhelmed by sand. It could hardly be otherwise, for it stands at the leeward end of a long sandy reach of the river, during the prevalent westerly winds. The strange thing is that a city should have been built, and have lasted so long, in such a situation. Thirty temples now lie buried in the sand, the pinuacles alone remaining to attest their existence. The hillocks of drift-sand are said to move on steadily at the rate of 9 or 10 feet yearly. We must suppose that this is an instance in which the circumstances, if not the elements of change have altered within comparatively recent times. A little lower down the river are the beautiful and imposing " cataracts of Siva Samundram, more commonly known as the Cauvery

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Falls." The island of Siva Samundram is formed by a bifurcation of the river. The falls occur in both branches, and are about 200 feet in height. The river here has cut back a narrow chasm in the edge of the Eastern Ghats, and has worn a deep bed for itself in the plateau, for some miles before the final leap into the low eountry. The island is well wooded and, with the high and steep hill sides, flanking the river bed, makes a beautiful setting for a beautiful sight. It is worth exploring for the deserted chasm of a former cataract, believed to exist in its centre. The maximum flood discharge of the Cauvery here is stated to be nearly a quarter of a million cubic feet per second. The best time for vi&iting the Falls is between June and September, during the south-west monsoon ; at other times the place is said to be unhealthy. Let us now return to the western highlands, and complete our hurried survey of the hilly region of Southern India. The Malnad, immediately within the brow of the Western Ghats, is an evergreen belt of most beautiful scenery throughout. Bold rocky summits bound the horizon ; deflse forests clothe the slopes and hollows, interspersed with grassy park-like glades, and open lawns; whilst the sight, or sound, of running water, is ever present in the valleys. It is a most charming eountry to ramble about in, and very accessible. The population, however, is exceedingly scanty, and the supply and con- veyance of pi ovisions is the principal difficulty for the traveller. The western highlands may be divided into several tracts, each with its own special beauties and peculiarities. The Nagar Malnad, to begin with, excels in the variety of its evergreen scenery. In its midst stood the city of Bednor (or Bamboo Town), the once flourishing capital of a local chieftain. Haider Ali, the usurper of Mysore, took it about a century ago, and made it the second city of his dominions, under the name of Haidar-Nagar (the city of Haidar). Its walls were then some eight miles in circumference, containing 100,000 houses, and near half a million of inhabitants. It is now little more than a deserted village, in the midst of overgrown mounds of debris. It is a very damp, rainy place, and Haidar's iniported inhabitants have either died out, or could not bear to remain there when his power ceased, and they were no longer compelled to do so. The southern part of the Malnad is more open and park-like. The Ghats recede ioland opposite the port of Mangalore, and the evergreen forest gives way to deciduous woods and extensive grass-lands, the increased distance from the sea apparently lessening the rainfall. The next highland tract to the southward is Coorg (or more properly, " Kodag, the steep "), a little mountainous principality, where the lofty Ghats again approach the Malabar coast. Its surface is all high hills, clothed with lofty primeval forest and separated by deep, narrow, tortuous valleys, with mountain torrents and babbling brooks. It is the

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fit home of a true highland clan, whose history for the last few centuries is as interesting as a romance. The Coorgs have sought our friendship and our rule, to which they are loyally attached. They still enjoy their own customs and local independence, and we may well feel proud of their trust. The next tract to the southward is the Wainad (said to mean the open or field country,in contradistinction to Malnad, the hilly, and Kodag, the steep). It is much less mountainous than Coorg, and abounds with low ridges and wide valleys. It has been largely occupied by British coffee-planters, for whose purpose the very moist climate seems eminently well adapted; but it has, or had, a bad reputation, as being feverish and unhealthy. The reeently commenced gold-mining has lent fresh interest to this tract, and, but for the costliness of our methods, machinery, and men, it would develope largely and pay well. British machinery, worked by Chinese thrift and labour, could hardly fail of success. Eich auriferous veins of quartz crop out everywhere, especially near Devala, the centre of the new gold-diggings. Gold-digging has been carried on here from ancient times, and many old shafts have been found, from 50 to 100 feet deep; and surface diggings have been observed in many parts of the adjacent tracts, in Mysore, Malabar, and the Nilgiri Hills. The enormous quantities of gold, said to have been amassed in the treasuries of Indian kings and temples, in ancient and mediseval times, were very probably no exaggeration after all. Thus far, the highland tracts mentioned have been part and parcel of the great central plateau, contained between the brows of the Western and Eastern Ghats. Their general level varies from 2000 to 3500 feet, with isolated points and groups running up to 6000 feet and upwards. Immediately to the S.S.E. of the Wainad, we come to the Nilgiri Hills, a nearly isolated plateau, at a much higher level, having a general altitude of 5000 to 7000 feet, with points running up to 8000 feet and more. It is severed from the Wainad and south-western Mysore, by a remarkable valley, that of the Moyar, which might almost be termed a canon, being a steep and comparatively narrow ravine, with precipitous sides, clean cut in the Mysore plateau, close to the northern foot of the Nilgiri Hills. It drains from the edge of the Ghats eastwards. The Nilgiri (or Blue Mountain) group, may be properly called a tableland, from being surrounded by very steep or precipitous scarps on all sides. The summit generally is a spread of undulating grassy downs, with rounded tops, separated by shallow hollows, or narrow valleys, each threaded by a trickling* streamlet, occasionally lost in the little swamps and peat bogs that abound, and usually flanked by the most picturesque strips of sharp-edged evergreen wood, locally known as Shola. The eastern portion of the Nilgiri plateau is the lower; the western

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 727 the higher and more wooded, especially at the western edge, where it slopes up rapidly to the peaks and brows of the Western Ghats, here called the Kunda Mountains, some of which exceed 8000 feet in height; " but Dodabetta, the great hill," the highest point, rises from a ridge near the centre of the plateau, at Utakamand. It is a huge conoidal mass, of smooth but steep slopes covered by grass and woods, and attains the respectable elevation of 8640 feet. The beauties of the Nilgiri Hills are well known, their peaks and precipices, their grassy downs and sheltered hollows, their beautiful moss-covered woods and pieturesque nestling sholas, their rippling streams abounding with cascades and fine waterfalls?all made accessible by bridle paths, good roads, and magnificent passes?in short, the scenery enriched by the gorgeous colouring of the tropics is lovely, and the climate almost perfect for Europeans. To the unsheltered ill-elad native, man or beast, the climate is not altogether so agreeable. They cannot withstand the steady, cold, wet blast of the south-west monsoon, as it storms over the crests of the Ghats and sweeps along the western downs. Not long ago a large train of pack- cattle reached the top of the pass from the Wainad one evening, and were left to graze in the driving mist of the monsoon. Before morning they were all dead, and I well remember seeing their bleached bones, scattered over the downs, a few years after. I have seen half-naked coolies from the plains, lying down benumbed by the roadside near the corpses of their fellows who had already succumbed to the cold, though I do not suppose the temperature at the time can have been much below 55? Fahr. The hardy aborigines, the stalwart Todas, with all their herds of sturdy buffaloes, forsake the western pastures and migrate to the eastern portion of the plateau, where, under the lee of the great Dodabetta ridge they are sheltered from the rain and chilling blasts of the monsoon. Even the wild denizens of the exposed western forests forsake them also, for more sheltered spots, at this season. The name Nilgiri, or Blue Mountains, is said to be derived from the uncommonly blue tone of the atmosphere, through which these hills are seen from all sides. Although separated from it by the Moyar ravine, the Nilgiri plateau may be considered the head of the great central triangular tableland of Southern India. The Eastern and Western Ghats having met here, abruptly terminate, &nd are succeeded in our southward tour, by a very remarkable opening,

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or lake, may at one time have communicated here with the Arabian Sear and perhaps the black-soil flats of Coimbatore, supposing that to be a subaqueous formation, as some think, lend some colour to the notion. To the south of the Palghat Gap the mountains rise again to their full height, under the name of the Anamalai or Elephant Hills, and farther south, as the Travancore Hills. They are also sometimes called the Southern Ghats. These mountains are more like a true mountain range than the Ghats to the north, inasmuch as they rise directly from the lowlands on all sides, and their surface is more broken up into large valleys and lofty peaks, than the highlands to the northward, which we have been considering. They are not so precipitous on the west side, indeed their eastern slopes are the steeper of the two. The highest point measured, Anamudi (or Elephant's Brow), is 8840 feet above the sea, the highest known peak in Southern India. The Anamalai Hills are very little known, being now almost im- inhabited, and surrounded by deadly jungles. They are believed, from the accounts of sportsmen and others who have penetrated to their summits, to surpass the Mlgiri Hills in salubrity of climate, magnificent scenery, and fertility of soil; and, from the numerous rude stone monu- ments found on them, they must have been more populous in former times. Geologically they resemble the Mlgiri Hills and the Western Ghats. Adjoining the Anamalai Hills to the east, are the Palani Hills, a lofty plateau, like the Mlgiri Hills, only more distinctly in two steps, the Western or Upper Palanis averaging 7000 feet, whilst the lower tract is only from 3000 to 5000 feet above the sea. The Palani Hills being farther removed from the first violence of the south-west monsoon, have a more equable climate, which is preferred by many to that of the Mlgiris, and, but for the want of inhabitants, offer perhaps a better opening for European settlers. There are no natural and few artificial lakes in the hills of Southern India, where there would seem to be the greatest facility for making them. What appears to be the site of an old lake, has been discovered " not far from the settlement of Kodikanal (or the cane-groves ") on the- Upper Palanis, but it is uncertain whether it was of natural or artificial origin. Each of the larger hill stations or settlements has its artificial lake, and Utakamand has two. The late Mr. W. G. M'lvor very nearly succeeded in forming a magnificent lake, with the slenderest of means. He selected the deep narrow throat of a large valley on the Nilgiri Hills, and in a single season of a few months, with the help of a few Chinese labourers only, trained the high-level waters of the neighbourhood to deposit a huge bank of silted soil, 80 feet high in the centre and some 500 feet long, right across the valley. Just before his work was complete, and his waste channels provided, an unusually early and heavy fall of rain

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occurred. It poured incessantly for several days. The lake formed and rose continually behind the fresh mud-bank until it topped it. In vain the gallant Scot strained every nerve to save his long dreamt- of creation, by letting off the flood round the ends of the embankment; and he endured the agony and chagrin of seeing his great bund cut in two in the middle; and in a few minutes after it was overtopped, the vast bund, and with it his magnificent scheme, melted away to nothing. The scene of such a feat and such a failure is well worth a visit. There is an unlimited opening for the artificial storage of water on the hills, for driving mills as well as for irrigation purposes. One such scheme may be mentioned, namely the Periyar project, for turning the Periyar river which flows to waste on the west coast, from the top of the Southern Ghats, so as to flow eastwards to the plains where water is so much needed. To the east of the Palani Hills, groups of similar but minor masses of hills occur as far east as Madura, and from thence northwards, with some considerable breaks and intervals, by Trichinopoly, across the valley of the Cauvery, and again on northwards, until they meet the line of the Eastern Ghats at the south-east corner of the Mysore Plateau, thus completely surrounding the south central lowlands of Salem and Coim- batore, before alluded to as the possible site of a former inland sea. From the well-known Shevaroy Hills, near Salem, the hilly tract extends eastward almost without interruption, to within 50 miles of Madras on the east coast. These masses vary in height from 2000 to 5000 feet. They are found to be unhealthy, and, as the heavy rains of the south-west monsoon hardly reach them, they are comparatively dry and unattractive. and but little is known about many of them. Geologically, they resemble the Ghats, and are perhaps only outlying remnants of the great table? land of the Peninsula. To the south of the Palani and Anamalai Hills, the Ghats continue under the name of the Travancore Hills, at an elevation of 5000 to 6000 feet, to within 20 miles of Cape Comorin, when they drop abruptly to a line of isolated hills and rocky mounts; the last of them to be seen, just awash at low water, a few hundred yards south of the land's end. There is a large tract of mountainous wilderness south of the Upper Palanis, almost wholly unknown and unoccupied, except by the elephant, the bison, and other wild animals. Amongst the latter may be included a few wild men, of the lowest type, who haunt these jungles in a state of nature, feeding on the fruits and roots they can pick and scratch up with their unassisted fingers in this Garden of Eden. They can make a fire,but seldom use one, except as a protection from the wild beasts they fear. They can talk a little with their somewhat less wild neighbours, for whom tbey gather cardamoms, honey, and

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 730 NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN INDIA. other wild jungle produce, in exchange for a little salt, corn, and cloth, the latter to ornament their women rather than to clothe them. Their " habitat is sufficiently indicated on our maps by the remark high wavy mountain covered by impenetrable forest," and that is about all we know ofit. So far my remarks have been confined to the high plateaux and hill tracts of Southern India, considered as one region on account of their common high elevation above the sea. I named the lowlands of the Malabar coast as the second region, because of its immediate proximity to the Western Ghats, and because it can best be visited and noticed while we are making the tour of the Ghats by means of the frequent passes between the highlands, and the numerous ports on this coast, and during the same season of the year, from January to June. I have mentioned the great beauty of the scenery of this tract, and can here only mention a few of its more prominent physical features. Generally speaking, the Malabar coast is a low flat shelf of laterite, or iron-clay-stone, between the wall of the Western Ghats and the sea- shore, deeply scored and worn into great hollows, which are now alluvial flats, scarcely above sea-level, on which the most luxuriant crops (chiefly of rice) are grown. Spurs and denuded portions of the Ghats jut out into the lowlands, and occasionally reach the coast-line, as, for instance, at Mount Dilli, more than 800 feet high, near Cannanore. Otherwise the coast-line is low, and devoid of promontories and bays. The violence of the surf and the wash of the current along the coast have caused this evenness of the shore-line, whilst the enormous rainfall of the south-west monsoon, when some 15 feet of rain falls upon the lowlands directly, besides the immense floods poured down from the Ghats, has filled up the hollows with alluvial deposit. Under these circumstances there can be no harbours, except the openings in the sea-wall, through which the floods force their way; and these are only available for small coasting vessels, owing to their shallowness. A principal feature of this seaboard tract is the chain of lagoons, or backwaters as they are termed, which is almost continuous for several hundred miles. They have been connected by artificial channels, where necessary, so as to take the place of roads, and serve for extensive inland navigation throughout the district. We may now just notice a few places of interest on the Malabar coast, proceeding as before, from north to south. Next to Honawar, which we noticed at first, comes Kandapur, with its beautiful lagoon, studded with high wooded islets, of which our distinguished countryman, Buchanan-Hamilton, wrote towards the close " of his extensive travels in Southern India, I have not seen a more

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" beautiful country than this." An old fort, situated a little higher up than the town, commands one of the finest prospects I ever beheld." A little farther to the southward is Mangalore, a flourishing port at the mouth of the river Netravati, which is continually shifting between the conflicting currents of sea and river. Maps of recent times show a direct passage into the sea, but more recently a sand-spit has formed in front of it, so as to drive the mouth of the river continually northwards for a distance of some five or six miles, until it has joined the estuary of the next river. At present, the river as it passes along the sea-front of the town, separated from the open sea by a wide high spit of sand, forms a fine harbour for the great concourse of small vessels from every part of the Arabian Sea generally to be met with here. There is without doubt a tendency for the sand of the sea-shore to shift northwards, even during the south-west monsoon, when the wind is westerly, and from what I have seen myself I am inclined to attribute it to the set of the great ocean rollers, which appear to come mostly from the south-west. There are many fair-weather roadsteads and little inlets for small coasting craft on this sea-board; but at Cochin there is a larger one giving access to the most extensive system of backwaters, a connected chain of lagoons reaching 200 miles along the coast, and forming one of its most characteristic features. We must not omit to notice a very strange phenomenon to be seen here and at a few other places. At Narakal and Alapalli there are patches of smooth water in the sea, so that ships can anchor in safety and small boats can land during the height of the monsoon. The cause of this is not well understood, but it is commonly ascribed to mud-banks or floating mud-islands. The inlet and lagoon at Quilon or Kayan (Kulam) is the last I shall name, and only to mention its extreme beauty. It is very extensive and diversified with high wooded islets, deep bays, and prominent headlands, all overgrown with tropical vegetation, from the summit down to the water's edge. To the south of Quilon the surface of the country is more broken and undulating, except very near to the coast-line, where it is covered by a dense forest of coco-nut and areca palms, as far as Trivandrum. But towards the southernmost part of Travancore, as we near Cape Comorin, the country becomes flatter again and sandy. The coco-nut palm gives place to the palmyra, and with the exception of the verdure, which con- tinues to the end, the country is very like the plains of Tinnevelly. On passing the end of the Ghats at Cape Comorin the change is as sudden as it is remarkable. Universal verdure gives place to bare red soil and sandy wastes, and the moist teeming land of the west coast is suddenly changed for the parched sunburnt tracts east of the Ghats. The explanation is obvious. The south-west monsoon pours all its

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 732 NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN INDIA. wealth of moisture on the west side of the great barrier of the Ghats, and has scarcely a drop left where with to bless the eastern plains. Cape Comorin is a low rocky promontory, and has changed con? siderably within historic times. Eighteen or twenty centuries ago there was a harbour here, and a market for the sale of the pearls obtained from the adjacent oyster-beds. Now there is neither harbour, nor town, nor pearl-oyster left, but only the rocks and the temple of " Kanya Kumari (or Kumari), the Virgin Maid," which is still, as of old, a resort for devout pilgrims from all parts of India. There is a tradition current, that the rock to be seen several hundred yards out in the sea at low water, already mentioned, was formerly joined to the land, and this is supported by the statement still believed in the neighbourhood, that fresh water is to be found in a well, or water-hole on the rock, whenever the sea does not break over it. The lee side of such a promontory would have been a splendid harbour. The sand around the rocks at the present point is of three kinds, and lies curiously levigated, or arranged in separate beds and layers. First there are the coarse water-worn grains of white quartz and felspar, like grains of very large rice; next we see large beds of pure garnet sand; and thirdly, streaks of fine black sand just like diamond gunpowder. These three kinds lie touching one another, but yet quite distinct and unmixed. Before noticing the general characteristics of the country to the east of the Ghats, let us glance a little farther along the south coast, and first we notice that the flowering and fruiting seasons of the palmyra, for about nine miles east of the cape, are the same as those of South Travancore, whereas here, after a gap of seven miles with no palms, the palmyra of the flourishes as a dense forest near the coast, with seasons of its own, determined by the north-east monsoon, which now predominates. The coast of the Gulf of Manar would seem to have altered in recent times but slowly. Korkai, which has been fully identified by the Eev. Dr. Caldwell with the ancient Kolkai (the Kolchoi), mentioned by the Greek geographers as an emporium on the sea-coast 2000 years ago, is now some three miles inland. In the middle ages it was supplanted by Kayal (" the lagoon "), mentioned by Marco Polo, which is now in turn deserted by the sea and left high and dry inland; whilst Tuticorin, the present port, promises to be silted up and deserted in like manner. Like other rivers of Southern India, the Tambraparni here has apparently shifted its mouth northwards, and may be expected to continue doing so. The present coast-line?and this remark applies generally to the south-east coast of the Peninsula?is marked by a ridge, or line of sand? hills, with low swampy flats and here and there; shallow lagoons on their land ward side; and it is interesting to notice what looks like a new and advanced line of coast in course of formation, in the shape of a reef of

This content downloaded from 185.2.32.58 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:39:26 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions NOTES ON THE PHYSIOGRAPHY OF SOUTHERN INDIA. 733 rocks and sand-banks, with occasional islets, running parallel to the present shore, at several miles distance in the sea. The growth of coral is active in the Gulf of Manar, and the islets are formed to a great extent, from its fragments. At the head of the gulf stands the island of Rameswaram, which seems to have joined the mainland till within recent times, and possibly also the island of Ceylon, by the chain of sandbanks and islets called Adam's Bridge, by means of which, according to the tradition, the island of Ceylon was once invaded by the army of Rama from the continent of India. Whilst the islets and sandbanks are believed to be growing, and the adjacent sea shoaling, the channels do not appear to be silting up; indeed the perpetual scour of the tide, and the monsoon currents, seem more than sufficient to keep open the old channels, and the breaches that have been made in recent times. A noticeable feature in the meteorology of this coast is the frequent lightning storms, which occur daily, for weeks together, before the setting in of the south-west monsoon, unaccompanied by rain or by any sound of thunder. They are seen along the coast where the land and sea breezes alternate, and along the line of the Ghats, where the surface current is thrown up into the upper and opposite current of the atmo? sphere. In this region also the rare phenomenon of interference fringes is very frequently to be seen. The shifting sand-wastes of south-east Tinnevelly are a noteworthy feature peculiar to this part of the eountry; they are called Theri, and occur in patches of red soil crowned by drifting hillocks of bright red sand. They move eastwards with the prevailing wind of the dry season at the rate of several fathoms yearly, overwhelming everything in their course and leaving a desert track of coarse sand behind them. They act as reservoirs, catching all the rain that falls, from 20 to 30 inches annually, and this oozes out gradually from underneath the dry sand- hills in suflicient quantity to irrigate extensive fruit-gardens throughout the year. We have hardly time to mention the third region of Southern India specified; the plains of the Carnatic, and, in short, all the low eountry between the Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, which can only be just noticed. The surface of this region is not flat, but has a good slope from the Ghats to the sea, and is everywhere slightly undulating. The general fall of the eountry from west to east is so universal and patent a fact, that the common words for west and east are the same that are used to signify upper and lower. Mel means upper or west, Kil, lower or east. Except along the alluvial seaboard from Cape Comorin to Madras, the eountry is picturesquely broken by bold groups of hills and rocky mounts, the former usually covered by low wood or scrubby bush. It abounds in well-cultivated tracts, the low lands being irrigated to the

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utmost, and the uplands all tilled in favourable seasons, that is, when- ever the rains accompanying the north-east monsoon are plentiful. Tinnevelly, the southernmost district, may be taken as a type of the whole region, with its low alluvial flats and sandy tracts near the coast, its red-soil uplands, and its black soil, cotton-producing, treeless plains. Its rainy season is the north-east monsoon, from October to January. The hot season sets in in March, tempered by sea breezes and occasional storms, and laststill October?along period?but the tempera- ture seldom exceeds 100? Fahr. in the shade. The soils of Southern India are supposed to have been formed for the most part by disintegration and decomposition of the rocks in situ ; but the black cotton-producing soil has been ascribed by some to subaqueous deposition. This soil is found in many parts of Southern, as well as in Central India, in the high upland plateaux of Mysore and the Deccan as well as in the lowland plains of the Carnatic. It is now, rather, sup? posed to be a superficial, sub-aerial formation, from the decomposition of argillaceous rocks, highly impregnated with organic matter. It is very fertile, having been cropped year after year for centuries, without manure and without irrigation. Except the small thorny acacia, it does not appear to produce any spontaneous forest or tropical vegetation to account for the organic matter with which it is said to be charged. The lowlands of South-eastern India are crossed by many rivers, which rise in the Western Ghats near the west coast, and are flooded by the rains of the south-west monsoon. This water is stopped by weirs or anekats, and drawn offby innumerable irrigation-channels to a marvellous extent, so that some of the rivers are emptied before they reach the sea. Deltaic formation on the coast is thus greatly retarded at the river mouths, and under a perfect system of storage and use, would cease altogether. This, however, is far from being the case with some of the greater rivers, the Cauvery for instance, within the area now under notice. Before it reaches the head of its delta at Trichinopoly, the Cauvery has, under native rule, been dammed up more than a dozen times. At the beginning of this century the flood waters had made for themselves a deep wide channel along the north edge of the delta, and the numerous irrigation channels, including the old bed or main channel of the river, were in imminent danger of being left high and dry, to the ruin of the entire district. Since then, under the British Government, fresh dams and waste weirs have been built, and the whole deltaic irrigation system restored. The river still discharges largely in the freshes, and its mouth is still shifting, like those of other South Indian rivers, northward, and Porto Novo promises to share the fate of Tuticorin. The causes for this shifting are not far to seek, namely the northward set of the wash of the ocean rollers, and the prevalence of southerly over northerly winds during the dry season, when the sand drifts most easily.

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The coast-line is doubtless undergoing, geologically speaking, rapid change, from some or all of the causes alluded to in this paper. Many ancient cities and ports on this coast have disappeared from a more accidental cause; the occurrence of devastating storm-waves during the passage of cyclones, such as that of November 1864, when 30,000 persons perished suddenly at Masulipatam. On this occasion, I was told by an eye-witness, a strong wind blew out to sea for some hours; a short period of calm ensued, followed by a violent gale from the sea ward accompanied by the storm-wave. When such a wave is reinforced by the regular flood of a spring tide, the devastation effected on a low coast may be better imagined than described. Many other interesting subjects might be broached if time allowed, but perhaps enough has been said to show that Southern India is a profltable field of observation and investigation for the physiographer, and also a delightful country to visit for its beautiful scenery, and the agreeableness of its mild though tropical climate.

The Geographical Position of Mashhad (Meshed).

By Major T. H. Holdich, r.e., Commanding Afghan Bonndary Commission Survey.

The necessity of securing a well-fixed point on which to close the long series of survey operations extending over 1000 miles from India, as well as to secure an initial value for the future extension of geographical surveys either eastwards or westwards, as the future movements of the Afghan Boundary Commission might determine, was so apparent, that about the middle of Aprii Captain Gore, r.e., started from Tirpul to Mashhad for the purpose of fixing such a point, if possible. Mashhad was selected partly because it is the terminus of the Persian telegraph line from Tehran, and it thus offers the best possible chance of an accurate determination of longitude differentially from Tehran, and partly because it is apparently within the limits of Russian geographical operations. Although Captain Gore left in April for this duty, it was not until the end of June that he finally succeeded in obtaining satis? factory results, owing both to the unusual continuance of atmospheric disturbances between Mashhad and Tehran, combined with the incessant presence of clouds at the latter place, which prevented time observations from being taken; and to the constant collapse of the Persian telegraph, which was by no means in perfect working order. His final success was due to the very able assistance of General Schindler (Director-General of Persian telegraphs) at Tehran, who spared no pains towards rendering the results as accurate as possible. Of his own observations at Tehran General Schindler writes thus:?" At last, on Saturday the 20th, we

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