The precipitous pathways which frequently occur in the Indian Apennines,
a chain of mountains extending along the western or Malabar coasts of
the peninsula, are called ghauts; and of these abrupt and perpendicular
precipices, Bessely ghaut is considered as the most romantic. It is
admirably described in the travels of Lord Valentia, from which the
following particulars are extracted.
On entering the defiles of the chain of mountains by which the
table-land of Mysore is separated from the low country of Canara and
Malabar, the scenery becomes extremely wild and romantic. Having reached
Purneah Chuttoor, situated on the summit of this celebrated ghaut, his
lordship began his descent at three in the morning, by a road formed
with great labor out of a bed of loose rock, over which the torrents of
the preceding winter had run with such force, as to wash away all the
softer parts, and in several places to leave single rocks, of four or
five feet diameter, standing in the center of the road, and not more
than two feet asunder. He alighted from his palanquin to admire the
sublimity of the scene, and entered a forest of the largest oriental
trees, several of which were one hundred feet in the stem before a
single branch extended itself; notwithstanding which, the descent was so
steep, that he was frequently on a level with their tops, at so small a
distance as to be able to distinguish them, by the gleam of the numerous
torches by which his party was accompanied, but which were insufficient
to enlighten the impenetrable canopy of foliage which for miles
concealed the face of heaven, or the deep gloom of the abyss into which
he appeared to descend. In the day-time the scene could not have been
half so awful or magnificent. The descent was impeded by numerous droves
of oxen which were ascending the ghaut. At break of day an opening, in a
winding part of the road, displayed the lofty mountain the party had
descended, covered with forests nearly to its summit. They passed
several rivulets, which at one spot had united, and formed a small
stream. The surrounding vegetation was richly variegated; and the
branches of the loftiest trees covered by plants of the parasitical
tribe. The inhabitants of a small village, in the center of this immense
forest, were employed in thrashing their grain in a truly patriarchal
manner: on a floor of hard earth the grain was trodden out by oxen,
which, agreeably to the Mosaical law, were unmuzzled.