push themselves some thirty or forty miles forward into the plain, their highest points being 8000 feet above the sea.
To
the north, a lofty range of hills shuts out the distant view; but close
below are the great heaps of quartz, indicating the entrances to the
levels driven into the hillside to intersect the auriferous reefs. To
the eastward, we look over the South Indian estates, beyond Bittusal,
away to Athikanu and Trevelyan, and the remarkable Needlerock Peak. The
latter rises conelike above the surrounding hills. The far distance is
canopied, as it were, by the blue heights of the Neilgherris. The
whole, in truth, makes one magnificent panorama, which embraces nearly
all the most interesting and best-known gold-mining sites. It is true
that we cannot see the estates of the Glasgow Company. Alpha,
Ham-slade, and those in the immediate neighbourhood of Devala, are
hidden by the forest-crowned range of hills on the Devala Moyar
Company's property; whilst Tambracherry is thirty miles away to the
westward.
I
have mentioned some heaps of quartz. These, it may be believed, were
sure to be the first attraction ; and I was soon descending the
Bungalow Hill with Captain Gifford, to make a closer acquaintance with
the scene of his skill and labour. At the foot of the declivity the
path turns off to the left. As we skirted the hill for a few hundred
yards, we observed
