MALABAR.
Calicut--Houses and gardens--Population of Malabar--Namburi
Brahmins--Nairs--Tiars--Slaves--Moplahs--Assessment
of rice-fields, of gardens, of dry crops--Other
taxes--Voyage up the Beypoor river--The Conolly teak
plantations--Wundoor--Backwood cultivation--Sholacul--Sispara
ghaut--Black-wood--Scenery--Sispara--View of the Nellemboor
valley--Avalanche--Arrival at Ootacamund.
HE who would desire to receive the most pleasant impression of India,
on a first arrival, must follow in the wake of Vasco de Gama, and land
on the coast of Malabar, the garden of the peninsula. Here Nature
is clad in her brightest and most inviting robes, the scenery is
magnificent, the fields and gardens speak of plenty, and the dwellings
of the people are substantial and comfortable.
As we steamed into the anchorage at Calicut, on board the little yacht
'Pleiad,' no appearance of any town was visible, and no building except
a tall white lighthouse. Thick groves of cocoanut-trees line the shore,
and are divided from the sea by a belt of sand; while undulating green
hills rise up behind, and the background of mountains was hidden by
banks of clouds. The whole scene bore a close resemblance to one of
the Sandwich or Society Islands, down to the canoes which came off to
us the moment the anchor was let go. They are hewn out of the trunk of
the jack-tree, with an upper bulwark fastened with coir twine; and the
canoe-men were naked athletic-looking fellows, with enormous hats made
of a frond of the tallipot palm (_Corypha umbraculifera_). When we
shoved off from the 'Pleiad' a handsome fish-hawk, with white head and
breast, was perched on the fore-topsail yard-arm, and sea-snakes were
playing in the water alongside. In-shore there were a few native craft,
called _pattamars_, at anchor. Pattamars are the vessels which have
carried on the coasting trade on the western side of India from time
immemorial. As in the days of Sinbad the sailor, their planks are not
nailed, but sewn together with coir-twine, and they have high sterns
and bows sheering rapidly aft. The deepest part is at the stem, whence
the bottom curves inwards to the stern. A pattamar has two masts raking
forward, with long picturesque lateen yards slung with one-third part
before the mast, and two-thirds abaft. They never attempt to tack, but
always ware, and if taken aback there is no alternative but either to
wait until she comes round, or to capsize.
On landing at Calicut, a carriage drawn by two white bullocks was,
through the hospitality of Mr. Patrick Grant, the Collector of Malabar,
waiting for us on the sandy beach, to convey us to his house; a
drive of about two miles. The excellent road, of a bright red colour
from the soil being composed of laterite, passes through groves of
cocoanut-trees, interspersed with many houses, each surrounded by
its garden of mangos, nux vomica trees, jacks with pepper-vines
creeping over them, and palm-trees. The houses are all substantial
and comfortable-looking, built of square blocks of laterite joined
with _chunam_, or lime made from calcined sea-shells, and roofed with
tiles. The laterite or iron-clay is a rock full of cavities and pores
like coral, overlying the granite which forms the basis of Malabar.
When excluded from the air it is so soft that any iron instrument can
readily cut it, and is dug up in square masses with a pickaxe, and
afterwards shaped into blocks with a knife or trowel. After exposure
it soon becomes as hard, and is as durable as bricks. Each house has
a cocoanut safe or store-room on one side, of open wood-work. Many
people were walking along the road, naked men with huge tallipot-palm
hats, and women with nothing on but bright-coloured petticoats, looking
picturesque in the foreground and middle distance of the palm-shaded
vistas. At intervals the cocoanut groves were broken by fields of vivid
green paddy, and tanks filled with red lotus-flowers.
From Mr. Grant's house, on the top of a rounded grassy hill, there is
an extensive and very beautiful view of the undulating hills and dales
of Malabar, generally covered with forest; with the ocean on one side,
and the Wynaad mountains on the other. Malabar is 188 miles long, 25
miles broad in the northern, and 70 in the southern half, and contains
6262 square miles. It is divided into 17 _Talooks_ or districts, and
has a population of 1,602,914 souls; of whom 1,165,174 are Hindus,
414,126 Moplahs, and 23,614 Christians.
The people of Malabar are a thriving active race, the men well built
and handsome, and the women remarkable for their beauty. The highest
caste among the Hindus is that of the Namburi Brahmins, who claim all
the land below the ghauts, and appear to have actually possessed a
large portion of it previous to the invasion of Hyder Ali of Mysore.
They declare that when Parasu Rama, one of the incarnations of Vishnu,
hurled his axe from the mountains, the ocean receded, leaving the
land of Kerala, as Malabar, Cochin, and Travancore were called; which
he gave to the Namburi Brahmins. It is true that the undulating
flat-topped hills, which cover the part of Malabar near Calicut, are
like the waves of the sea, and appear as if the ocean in receding had
forced channels, and thus formed the intervening valleys. The Namburis
are fast dying out: they are landed proprietors, and perform such
offices as bestowing holy water and ashes, or performing _poojah_ or
worship for the other Hindus, but never enter the public service.
The most important portion of the population is included in the eleven
classes of Nairs,[390] a race of pure Sudra caste. They pretend to be
born soldiers, and formed the armies of the Zamorin and Cochin Rajahs,
the lower castes not being allowed to bear arms. The Nairs now hold
most of the land in Malabar, and are frequently very rich. Both the
Zamorin of Calicut and the Rajah of Cochin are Nairs; and the origin
of their rule is said to have been as follows. About a thousand years
ago, a Viceroy of the Sholum Rajah ruled over Malabar, named Cheruman
Permal, who made himself independent, and divided the country among his
nobles, of whom five were of the Kshatri caste, and seven were Nairs.
After the division it was found that one of his bravest officers, the
ancestor of the present Zamorin or Tamori Rajah, had been left out;
Cheruman Permal, therefore, gave him his sword, and all the territory
in which a cock crowing at a certain small temple could be heard.
Hence Calicut, from _Colicodu_, a cock-crowing.[391] Down to the time
of Tippoo the whole of Malabar was governed by the descendants of the
sisters of these thirteen Nair chiefs. The Zamorin of Calicut has some
influence, though he is much reduced in wealth and importance since the
days of Vasco de Gama.
The Nairs live under the remarkable institution called
_murroo-muka-tayum_. Sisters never leave their homes, but receive
visits from male acquaintances, and the brothers go out to other
houses, to their lady-loves, but live with their sisters. If a younger
brother settles in a new house, he takes his favourite sister with him,
and not the woman who, according to the custom in all other countries,
should keep house for him. The man's mother manages the house, and
after her death his eldest sister takes her place; but no man has any
idea who his father is, and the children of his sisters are his heirs.
Moveable property is divided amongst the children of the sisters of the
deceased equally, and the land is managed by the eldest male of the
family, but each individual has a right to a share in the income.
This strange custom gives the women an important position; and as
they are pretty, and take pains with their personal appearance, their
influence is very great. The Nairs are addicted to drink, and may eat
venison, fowls, and fish; and the families are fond of gaiety, and of
visiting among people of their own rank, when there is much talking
and singing. Most of the men, as well as the women, read and write
in their own character, and there is a Government Gazette printed in
the Malayalim language. The Collector was anxious, also, to establish
a paper in Malayalim, containing general information, which would no
doubt have an excellent effect, but the difficulty is to find a good
native editor.
Next in rank to the Nairs come the _Tiars_ or _Shanars_, a stout,
good-looking, hard-working race, who do not pretend to Sudra origin.
Formerly the Nairs exacted deference from the Tiars with extreme
cruelty and arrogance, treating them more like brutes than men; and if
a Tiar defiled a Nair by touching him, he was instantly cut down. But
British rule is gradually uprooting these caste barbarisms, and the
position of the Tiars is improving. Some of them hold appointments as
clerks in Government offices, and they are protected by just and equal
laws. The Tiars form the mass of the field labourers; but the proper
duty of their caste is to extract juice from the palm-tree, and either
boil it into _jaggery_ (unrefined sugar), or distil it. Their women are
exceedingly pretty, with masses of long hair; but there is a prevalent
custom for all the brothers of a family to have but one wife amongst
them to save expense, which leads to most disastrous consequences.
Below the Tiars there are several outcast tribes; among them the
_Churmas_ or slaves, a miserable and down-trodden race, possibly the
remnant of the aboriginal inhabitants. Even now they are slow to
understand that they are not slaves, and land on which there are most
_Churmas_ still sells at the highest price.
The _Moplahs_, or Mohammedans of Malabar, are descended from Arab
mariners and traders by native women, and hence their name, from
_Mah-pilla_ "son of the mother." They have certainly been established
in Malabar for a thousand years, if not more, as it is on record that
the Viceroy Cheruman Permal, who then divided the country amongst
his chiefs, was converted by a Moplah, and sailed for Mecca. All the
sympathies of the Moplahs are with Arabia and the Red Sea, and they
frequently undertake pilgrimages to Mecca. Respecting their creed
they are fanatical, and are easily roused to fury by an insult, or
an attempt on the part of the Nairs to treat them as a lower caste.
On these occasions they run mucks; but in ordinary times they are
hard-working, intelligent, abstemious, excellent boatmen, and capital
backwoodsmen. Many of the Moplahs are very wealthy. Their mosques,
however, are poor edifices, not to be distinguished from ordinary
dwelling-houses, and the temples of the Hindus are no better. There is
no attempt at ornamental architecture in the religious buildings of
Malabar.
One-fifth of the collectorate of Malabar is taken up with rice and
garden cultivation, the remaining four-fifths being covered with
forest, or cleared for dry grains and coffee plantations. The land
revenue, taking the average of five years ending in 1858-59, is
255,000_l._ The assessment of the rice-lands is essentially the
same as that fixed by the Government of Tippoo Sultan of Mysore in
1783-84. Though unequal, and in some places burdensome, it is on the
whole light, and, except in two of the Talooks,[392] it is lighter in
the north than in the south. As an example of the inequality of the
land-tax, I may mention that the district of Pattaumby, on the river
Ponany, is very highly and unfairly assessed, as it is said, from
the following cause. Before the invasion of Tippoo all the land in
Malabar was in the hands of feudal chiefs; there was no land-tax, and
the Zamorin and other Rajahs were supported by the produce of their
own estates. The first ruler who imposed a land-tax was the Mysore
conqueror. Any village which offended his officers was highly assessed;
and hence the present inequalities, which will, however, be corrected
by the new Survey and Assessment Commission. In the case of Pattaumby
the accountant quarrelled with the landowners, and threatened to impose
a heavy assessment, and, when they attempted to murder him, he escaped
to Wynaad, and sent in his report to Tippoo.
All land in Malabar is private property, and the landlord gets 20 to 40
per cent. of the net rent, the remainder being the Government demand.
From the gross produce of the rice-fields 20 per cent. is deducted
for reaping and other small charges called _puddum_, the remainder
being available gross rent. From the gross rent one-third is deducted
as the expense of cultivation, called _vitoo vally_; one third as the
cultivator's share, or _koshoo labon_, whether he be a _jemakar_ or
proprietor, a _kanomkar_ or mortgagee, or a _pattamkar_ or renter; and
the remaining third is the _pattom_, net produce, or rent. Of this
last third the Government share is 65 per cent., leaving 35 per cent.
as the share of the proprietor. The Government share is thus a little
less than a quarter of the gross produce.
The assessment is not calculated on the extent of land, but on the
amount of seed required to sow a given space, according to the quality
of the soil, which is divided into three classes, namely _pasma_
(clay), _rasee pasma_ (sand and clay), and _rasee_ (sand). On an
average the soil does not yield more than tenfold, and most of it bears
only one crop. Some lands are sown in April or May, and the crops cut
in August or September. These are chiefly in the coast Talooks. Others
are sown in September and October, and the crops cut in January and
February. The seeds are raised on small pieces of land, and the plants,
when young, removed by hand, and planted in the paddy-fields.
The garden assessment, as it is called, on cocoanut-trees, the great
wealth of Malabar, betel-palms, and jacks, was fixed in 1820.
The cocoanut-trees are divided according to their situations and soils
into five classes--the first and second classes being _attivepoo_, or
sea-coast; and the third, fourth, and fifth, _karavepoo_, or inland
cocoanut-trees. Each tree pays, on an average, eighteen pies,[393]
those which are unproductive from age or youth being excluded. The
betel-nut palms pay, on an average, six pies, and the jack-trees
twenty-eight pies; but the tax on gardens is not more than forty per
cent. of the landlord's rent. A cocoanut-tree is estimated to bear at
least sixteen to forty nuts in the year, according to its site; and the
owner of a plantation derives profit from the leaves as well as from
the husks and shells of the nut. The leaves, used for covering houses,
sell at two and a half to five Rs. the thousand, each tree yielding
ten to fifteen annually; and the husks, for coir ropes, fetch six annas
the thousand.[394]
The betel-nut palm (_Areca catechu_), which is also taxed has a
long slender smooth stem, and graceful curving fronds. I have seen
palm-trees in the South Sea islands, many kinds in the forests of South
America, and in India; but, of the whole tribe, the betel-nut palm is
certainly the most elegant and beautiful. Dr. Hooker likens it "to an
arrow shot from heaven, raising its graceful head and feathery crown in
luxuriance and beauty above the verdant slopes." A tree will produce
300 nuts in the year, and continues to bear for twenty-five years.
The nut is very hard, the size of a cherry, and is chewed by all the
natives of India with the leaves of the betel-pepper (_Chavica betel_)
spread with _chunam_. It is cut into long narrow pieces, and rolled up
in the leaves of the betel-pepper or pawn. It makes the mouth and teeth
red, and gives the chewer a disgusting appearance. The consumption
must be enormous, for it is chewed by 50,000,000 of men, and, next to
tobacco, is the most extensively used narcotic; but it has none of the
excellent properties of the coca-leaf of the Peruvians.
The jack (_Artocarpus integrifolius_), the only other tree which
is taxed in Malabar, grows to a considerable size, and the wood is
much used for furniture of all kinds. The fruit, a favourite article
of food, is of enormous dimensions, and grows out of the trunk. In
Travancore they put the whole fruit in the ground, and, when the young
shoots grow up, the stems are tied together with straw, and by degrees
they form one stem, bearing fruit in six or seven years.[395] Besides
the taxed trees, the gardens round Calicut generally contain mangos and
nux vomica.
In addition to the rice or wet cultivation, and the above-mentioned
trees, the upland or dry cultivation of rice and sesame or gingelee
oil-seed is assessed on an annual inspection: forty per cent. of the
gross produce of the former being deducted, on account of the peculiar
labour and probable loss, and twenty per cent. of the remainder being
the Government share. The sesame cultivation has no deduction from the
gross produce; and ginger, pepper, and some other dry crops are free
of land-tax. The pepper cultivation is chiefly carried on in northern
Malabar, and ginger in the Shernaad district, south of Calicut, by the
Moplahs.[396]
The other taxes are _abkarry_, or the privilege of selling
liquors, which is either farmed by public sale, or levied from the
toddy-drawers, when it is called _kutty-chatty_ (knife and pot) tax;
_mohturfa_ on houses, shops, fishing-boats, oil-mills, and looms;
licences, stamps, and the salt monopoly; the whole revenue of Malabar
in 1859 having been 266,860_l._ The income-tax had not yet been levied
at the time of our visit, but its nature had been carefully explained
to the people, it had been stripped of everything that was offensive or
inquisitorial, and no difficulty was anticipated in its introduction,
although it was very generally considered that it was unwise and
impolitic, and that it would be unproductive. In the matter of taxes
there was a striking contrast between Peru, whence we had just come,
and where they are scarcely known, and this land of manifold imposts.
On the whole, however, Malabar is a splendid possession; the people are
very flourishing, the population increasing, and cultivation rapidly
encroaching on the forests. There is no gang robbery, but occasional
housebreaking, and a good many murders, often caused by jealousy,
the criminals usually making a full confession, and thus saving much
trouble.
In the evening we embarked in a canoe which had been prepared for us
near the fine timber bridge over the Calicut river, on the road to
Beypoor. The setting sun and banks of rosy clouds were visible through
the graceful fronds of the cocoanut-trees as we drove along the shady
road, with occasional glimpses of the sea. The canoe was very long,
and cut out of one trunk, with raised bow and stern, ornamentally
carved. It was pulled by four tall wiry-looking Moplahs, with nothing
on but clouts and huge umbrella-hats, made of the tallipot palm;[397]
and a fifth steered with a paddle. Their oars were long bamboos, with
circular boards fastened to one end by neat coir seizings. We started a
little after sunset, and passed from the Calicut river by a backwater
into the Beypoor, where there were many shallow places, and the Moplahs
had constantly to jump out and drag the canoe over them. The banks of
the river are wooded down to the water's edge, with groves of slender
betel-nut palms rising aloft, and standing out against the starry sky.
The foliage was covered with brilliant fire-flies, and here and there
we passed a hut, with its owner standing on the shore, waving a burning
brand. All night the boatmen sang noisy glees, and in the morning we
reached the landing-place at Eddiwanna, forty miles from Calicut, and
near the Government teak plantations of Nellamboor.
These plantations were originated by Mr. Conolly, the late Collector
of Malabar, with a view to the establishment of nurseries for
replenishing the teak forests, as nearly all the fine timber had been
felled many years ago. There is a great deal in North Canara of small
size, and still more in Cochin and Travancore; but the reckless system
of felling threatened the same results as has already overtaken the
supply of chinchona-bark in South America. The only forests containing
teak, in Malabar, in which Government has a proprietary right, are
25 square miles in the Palghat talook, where all the mature trees
have long since gone to the Bombay dockyard; but in 1842 leases of
forest-land were obtained from the Zamorin for the cultivation of
teak, 70 to 80 square miles in extent, chiefly in the Ernaad talook,
near Nellamboor. This most important and now successful measure is
due to the zeal and perseverance of Mr. Conolly, and there is a good
prospect of the stock of teak-timber in these forests being eventually
replenished. The trees, however, require a growth of 60 or 80 years
to reach a maturity fitting the wood for shipbuilding; but it is then
unequalled by any other known timber; it does not injure iron, and is
not liable to shrink in width.
It was some time before the method of inducing the teak-seeds to
germinate was discovered, and several experiments were tried. In
the forests it was observed that the seeds were prepared for growth
by losing the hard outer shell through the warmth caused by fires
which annually consume the brushwood. Mr. Conolly, therefore, burnt a
coating of hay over the ground where the seeds were sown. This trial
was unsuccessful, and in 1843 it was found that the best method was to
steep the nuts in water for thirty-six hours, then sow them in holes
four inches apart, and half an inch under the surface, covering the
beds with straw, so as to prevent evaporation, and gently watering
them every evening. By following this plan the seeds germinated, and
sprouted in from four to eight weeks. In 1844 as many as 50,000 young
trees, raised in the adjacent nurseries, were planted, eight feet
apart, in the cleared ground near Nellamboor, along the banks of the
Beypoor river, which had been cleared of jungle. The seedlings are
transplanted from the nursery at the age of three months, and for the
first seven or eight years they sprout up very fast, but afterwards
they grow slowly. From 1843 to 1859 as many as 1,200,000 trees have
been put down, and they are now planted at the rate of 70,000 a year.
Much care is required in systematic thinning and pruning, and, for the
superintendence of this important work, an annual visit is paid to the
plantations by Mr. McIvor, who is now so ably conducting the chinchona
experiment on the Neilgherry hills.
We were met by Mr. McIvor at Eddiwanna, and started for the village
of Wundoor, six miles distant, in _munsheels_ or hammocks, slung to
bamboos with a shade over them, and carried by six men, who kept up
unearthly yells the whole time. The road leads through rice-cultivation
and groves of betel-nut palms, jacks, and mangos. Wundoor is a
pretty village, with an avenue of sumach-trees[398] leading up to
the post-house or travellers' bungalow. These post-houses, which
are erected by the Government at easy stages along all the roads in
India, for the convenience of travellers, are exceedingly comfortable,
and render travelling in India as easy and commodious as it is the
reverse in Peru and other parts of South America. At Wundoor the first
bungalow we had seen put an end to all idea of having to rough it while
travelling in India. The building contained several clean rooms, with
cane-bottom sofas, arm-chairs, and tables; and outside there was a
pleasant verandah, with a glorious view of the Koondah mountains, which
it was necessary to ascend on our road to the Neilgherries. A clump of
trees, consisting of jacks, mangos, and peepuls, formed a huge arch,
through which there was an enchanting landscape of smiling hill and
dale, with the dense forest beyond, crowned by the broken outline of
the distant mountains.
We set out from Wundoor at daybreak, and passed a house just outside
the village, where, a few days before, a tiger had carried off a child
before the eyes of its parents. Next day the brute had the temerity
to come again and try to force open the door, when a man shot it
from the window. For some hours we rode through a country where the
jungle alternated with cultivation in open glades, which in their
natural state are covered with _Pandanus_, but the people here, as
in other parts of Malabar, are fast encroaching on the forest, and
converting these glades into paddy-fields. As we approached the foot
of the mountains cultivation at last entirely ceased, and the road led
through a dense forest of enormous bamboos, teak-trees with their large
coarse leaves, black-wood, and other fine timber. At noon we reached
the post-house of Sholacul, at the foot of the Sispara ghaut, which
leads up to the summit of the Koondahs, a western continuation of the
Neilgherries.
The building at Sholacul was surrounded by a very stout pallisade,
to protect it from the wild elephants, who strongly object to all
encroachments on their domain; and even take the trouble of pulling
up the wooden milestones by the side of the roads. We found all the
roads which we travelled over in Malabar excellent, and the ascent
of the Sispara ghaut, though only a zigzag bridle-path, is in very
good order. After leaving Sholacul the road first passes through a
region of gigantic reeds, and then through a belt of black-wood,
palms, and tree-ferns, with an undergrowth of _Curcumas_, ferns, and a
brilliant purple flower (_Torenia Asiatica_). The black or rose-wood
tree (_Dalbergia latifolia_) grows to a height of about fifty feet,
with handsome spreading branches, and pinnate leaves. The timber is
very valuable; it is extensively used in Bombay for making beautiful
carved furniture, and planks are sometimes obtained four feet broad,
after the sap-wood has been removed. In consequence of the increasing
price, Dr. Cleghorn, the able and energetic Conservator of Forests in
the Madras Presidency, has caused a number of seedlings to be planted
at Nellamboor; and plantations have also been formed in N. Canara and
Mysore.
The occasional openings in the forests, at turns in the road,
afforded us views of the mountains below us covered with the richest
vegetation, and of the rice-fields of Malabar stretching away to the
faintly indicated blending of sea and haze on the horizon; which
almost equalled in beauty the finest parts of the eastern Andes. From
about 1000 to 5000 feet above the sea the jungle is covered with
innumerable leeches, which eagerly fasten on their prey, whether men,
horses, or dogs, and make a journey through this region, in the wet
season, exceedingly disagreeable. Within this leech-zone there is a
considerable clearing called Walla-ghaut, planted with coffee, which is
in a ruinous and abandoned state, chiefly owing to the difficulty of
inducing labourers to venture among the leeches. As we continued the
ascent, the scenery increased in magnificence, the views became more
extensive, and there were mountain-tops crowned with glorious forest
trees far below us. At 6000 feet mosses appear, then lilies, brambles,
and wild strawberries, and occasionally we crossed noisy little streams
overshadowed by the trees. We reached the Sispara bungalow, on the
summit of the ghaut, 6742 feet above the level of the sea, late in the
afternoon.
The Sispara ghaut takes the traveller from the tropical plains to the
temperate climate of the hills, where the face of nature is entirely
changed. Here the hills are covered with grass, and the ravines only
are filled with trees, forming thickets called _sholas_. In the rear of
the bungalow there is an almost unrivalled view of the Malabar plains,
from the edge of a precipice. The Koondah hills sweep round until they
join the Wynaads, half encircling the Nellamboor valley, which was
thousands of feet below us, and is covered with forest, intersected
in all directions by open glades of a rich light green. The Koondahs
rise up from Malabar like perpendicular walls, so steep that even a cat
could not scale them in any part, for a distance of forty miles; and
the grandeur of the view from this point, with these sublime cliffs,
and the vast expanse of forest-covered plain below, is very striking.
At daylight next morning we left the Sispara bungalow, and rode
for several miles through a valley interspersed with _sholas_ of
rhododendron-trees. Eighteen miles from Sispara is the Avalanche
bungalow, 6720 feet above the sea, whence there is a good carriage-road
to Ootacamund, the chief European station on the Neilgherry hills. At
Avalanche the Koondah range is considered to cease, and the Neilgherry
hills to commence, but the nature of the country is the same. Between
Avalanche and Ootacamund, a distance of 15 miles, the country consists
of grassy undulating rounded hills, divided from each other by wooded
_sholas_. Herds of fine buffaloes were grazing by the roadside, and
here and there we saw patches of millet (_Setaria Italica_) near the
huts of the natives of these hills. As we rode round the artificial
lake, and, passing several pretty little houses surrounded by
shrubberies, stopped at the door of Dawson's hotel at Ootacamund,
it was difficult to persuade ourselves that we were not again in
England. The garden in front of the house was stocked with mignonette,
wallflowers, and fuchsias, but the immense bushes of heliotrope covered
with flowers, ten feet high and at least twenty in circumference, could
not have attained such dimensions in an English climate. Ootacamund is
nearly in the centre of the table-land of the Neilgherries, at the foot
of the western face of the peak of Dodabetta, and, except to the N.W.,
the station is completely surrounded by grass-covered hills. Houses
are scattered about under the shelter of the hills, with gardens and
plantations of _Eucalyptus_ and _Acacia heterophylla_, trees introduced
from Australia, around them; and the broad excellent roads are bordered
by _Cassia glauca_ bushes with a bright orange flower, honeysuckles,
fox-gloves, geraniums, roses, and masses of the tall _Lobelia excelsa_.
A graceful white iris is also common.
This charming spot, now that the roads are planted with tall trees, and
the hedges filled with all the familiar flowers introduced from old
England, while curling smoke ascends through the foliage, and suggests
the idea of chimneys and warm firesides, is as unlike India, and as
like an English watering-place, as can be imagined. The tower of the
church, seen from many points of view, increases the resemblance, which
is certainly not lessened by the rosy cheeks and healthy looks of the
children, and the fresh invigorating mountain air. But when a few miles
from the station, and out of sight of all English associations, there
was much that reminded me of the _pajonales_ in the chinchona region of
Caravaya at a first glance: and I felt sanguine that all the _pajonal_
chinchona-trees would thrive in most of the _sholas_ on the Neilgherry
hills, while suitable sites for those species which require a warmer
climate would be found in the forest slopes which overlook the plains.
A closer inspection confirmed me in this opinion.