Harkness, Henry: A description of a singular aboriginal race inhabiting the summit of the Neilgherry Hills, or Blue Mountains of Coimbatoor, in the Southern Peninsula of India (London, 1832)

MOUNTAIN STREAMS.

in succession, rise the several tops, covered to the very
summit with the richest pasture.

Nor is the scene less beautiful on a nearer approach;
for you then find the green bespangled with a variety of
the most beautiful wild flowers, of every diversity of co-
lour ; the trees, among which appear the crimson rodo-
dendron and the white camelia, varying in shade and
richness of foliage ; and some covered with moss, assum-
ing all the hoary appearance of winter ; while the banks
of the rills and streamlets that meander at their base,
are lined with the dog-rose and jessamine; and all
around are seen the strawberry, and numerous other
wild fruits, flourishing in spontaneous luxuriance.

Several of the little streams here mentioned, meeting
at one point, fall into a natural basin, which confined at
its south-western extremity by a strong mound of earth,
forms an expansive and delightful lake, of five or six
miles circuit. This beautiful piece of water, which, in
some parts, spreads out to a considerable width, and
in others winds in a serpentine course among hills,
gently rising from its banks, and clothed with the soft-
est verdure, has now a public carriage road surrounding
it, affording one of the most scenic, healthful, and agree-
able drives of which India, or perhaps any part of the
world, can boast.

In the perspective, south-west from Oatacamund,
appears the range of mountains called the Koondaho,