4 FROM BOMBAY TO TEE WYNAAD.
ing
quality in the character of the scenery. But this may simply be
described as featureless; for, after leaving the mountainous approach
to Poonah, it is all a dead level, dry and uninteresting. The same may
be said, in a measure, of the country through which the Madras Eailway
passes, except, indeed, that everything wears a thoroughly tropical
appearance; the aridity of Central India giving place to the verdure
of the south; whilst distant hills occasionally break the monotony of
the general level of the plain.
At
Pothanoor Junction, 302 miles from Madras, we left the main line, which
touches the western coast at Beypore. A short branch, some twenty miles
in length, passing through Coimbatore, a rather important town,
terminates at Mattapollium, six miles from the foot of the Neilgherri
Hills.
It
is always advisable to arrange beforehand for a seat in one of the mail
tongas, or carts. This may be accomplished by telegraphing to the agent
of the Tonga Dak Company at Ootacamund, informing him of the train by
which you will arrive. It is well to do this, for it will prevent the
possibility of an unpleasant detention in this miserable village. I
should, however, admit that there certainly is an hotel at MattapoUium;
but I never heard of any one patronizing it except in a case of the
direst necessity.
The mail tonga, in which the next thirty-five miles to Ootacamund is done, is a strongly built vehicle on
