Page:McCosh, John - Advice to Officers in India (1856).djvu/285



1. NEILGHERRY HILLS.—These hills, the principal Sanatarium of the Madras presidency, stand in N. lat. 11° 30' E. long. 77° 30'; they are isolated all round with the exception of one neck that connects them with the western ghauts, and rise from the surrounding country in bold precipices, clothed in dense forests, or cleft by waterfalls into deep ravines. Their summits form an extensive table land, thirty or forty miles in length, by fifteen or twenty in breadth, diversified by innumerable hills and undulations, generally bare, with narrow valleys between, marshy and mossy, or filled with umbrageous trees.

2. 00TACAMUND.—In the centre of this table-land stands the principal station, Ootacamund, in an extensive valley, with numerous minor hills and valleys scattered over it, affording most convenient sites for houses,and every facility for the construction of roads. The houses, about 150 in all, are generally good, some with flat roofs, some thatched, and some tiled; for the most part furnished with a profusion of trees and shrubbery,