What
interminable loops the road takes! So long a way round, and so short a
distance across ! The valley below is all filled with coffee. Then we
pass Mr. Wright's bungalow—more coffee; then some jungle and scrub; and
a side path ascending a big hill; and up, up we go, higher and higher,
till we reach the summit, and there find ourselves at home at the
Mango-Tree Bungalow, 4000 feet above the sea. Darkness had already set
in; dinner was almost ready, and, for it, I was quite ready; and the long night's rest which followed the hospitable meal, was a grateful end to my first day in the Wynaad.
Note.—Since
writing the above, the Indian Consolidated Gold Company has been formed
to work the whole of these fine estates, extending all the way from
Devala to Pundalur, and possessing some of the richest reefs in the
district, I have seen quartz from them with visible gold in it.
