city
I found that the Wynaad can be reached by two routes. One is by the
British-India Company's coasting steamers to Calicut—a voyage of three
or four days, dependent on the number of intermediate ports touched at;
and from Calicut by road through the Malabar District, either to the
Tambracherry or the Carcoor Ghat. This latter portion, a distance of
seventy miles, is accomplished in a bullock cart or bandy, and takes
another two days. The other route is to go by rail to Madras, and
thence to Matta-pollium on the Madras Eailway; and by mail tonga to
Ootacamund. This is three days' journey from Bombay, including twelve
hours which must be spent in Madras. From Ootacamund the traveller may
ride into the Wynaad in eight or ten hours, as the case may be.
For
various reasons I selected the latter route, leaving Bombay at two
o'clock on a "Wednesday, reaching Madras at six on Friday morning,
leaving again at six the same evening, and arriving at Mattapollium at
10.30 on Saturday morning, and at Ootacamund at four in the afternoon.
It is pleasant enough travelling by rail in India in the cold weather;
but with an atmosphere of choking dust, and the thermometer registering
over 90° in the carriage, with the blinding sunlight in the daytime,
and not unfrequently at night a chilly wind, such a journey is no
ordinary trial of endurance. One could have borne it better, no doubt,
had there been any redeem-
