Page:A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras.pdf/22



Position. - Boundaries.-- Area.- Population. - Aspect of the country. — Mountains. - Rivers. East Coast Canal. — Taluq Divisions. - Stations of Public] Functionaries.-Police Stations. - Salt Stations. — Ports. — Post Offices and Travellers' Bungalows. - Physical description of the several Taluqs. — Villages .-- Area.- Population and Revenge of the several Taluqs. - Zemindaries, Shrotriums, Kandrigas. — Ports, Estuaries, and Light houses.

Nellore District lies to the north of Madras, and is 170 miles long from north to south, and 70 miles broad from east to west.

It is bounded on the south by Madras and North Arcot, on the east by the Bay of Bengal, on the west by Cuddapah and Kurnool, and on the north by the Kistna District

It lies between lat. 13° 25' and 15° 55' N., long. 79° 10' and 80° 15'; the area is 8751.75 square miles approximately. Population 1,168,664.

The general aspect of the coast is that of a sandy plain with large tracts of jungle interspersed with cocoanut trees and palmyras. The country inland is more hilly, but few eminences have an elevation exceeding 400 feet above the level of the sea. The Udayagiri Droog is an exception, rising to about 2,000 feet. Captain A. O'H. Clay, of the Revenue Survey, in a report of 1868, writes: - " The natural features of the coast taluqs differ widely from those lying under the Eastern Ghauts. In the former there is every evidence of prosperity : the villages are of a fair size, and generally contain several tiled houses; handsome topes are planted in the neighbourhood; land available for cultivation is being eagerly taken up, and the eye ranges with pleasure over the rice plains of Nellore and Gudur ( chiefly irrigated by the Pennair Anicut) and the luxuriant crops of cholum growing on the rich red soils of Kandukur and Ongole. But to the west all is changed, large tracts of low scrub jungle, diversified with rocky hills and stony plains, form the distinctive