30o PORT CANNING
transferred. In 1865 the Port Canning Company was formed to
develop the port. In that year it was visited by twenty-six ships, and
for a time the company's shares rose at an unprecedented rate; but the
number of ships visiting the port dropped to one vessel in 1868-g, and
the failure of the scheme was then recognized. Litigation ensued, and
in î87o the company went into liquidation and was reconstructed as
the ` Port Canning Land Company, Limited.' This company is under
P~rsi management, the shares being held in Bombay, and is engaged
in leasing reclamations in the Sundarbans. The lands held by it have
been sub-leased ; and the middlemen, who have again sublet them to
others, reap most of the profits. Canning is now a Government estate,
and the only relics of the wild speculation of the sixties are a railway
which does a little traffic in timber and other produce from the
Sundarbans, some ruined jetties, and the remains of a tramway line.
Caragola.-Village in Purnea District, Bengal. See KARAGOLA.
Cardamom Hills.-Range of hills in Travancore State, iVladras,
lying between q° z6' anof the Anaimudi group. They form an elevated plateau at a height of
3,00o to 3,soo feet, with peaks and hills running up to s,ooo feet, and
comprise the High Range in the north, the Cardamom Hills proper in
the centre, and those of PÎRMEn in the south. Area, about r,ooo
square miles; population (î9oî), zr,58q. Though not a distinct
revenue division, they form a separate division for magisterial and
certain other purposes, under the charge of a Superintendent and
District magistrate assisted by a first-class magistrate located at Pirmed.
Cardamoms formed a State monopoly till r896, when a system of
land tax was introduced. The ryots now receive permanent occupancy
rights, with the power to relinquish their holdings at will. They are
mostly natives of neighbouring British Districts, and own no property
in Travancore except these cardamom lands. In r9o3-4 the area
under cultivation was î3,6q8 acres, of which îz,579 acres paid the
prescribed assessment of Rs. 6-4 per acre. Since the abolition of
thé monopoly, European capital has thrown itself largely into this
enterprise. Viewed from the economic and industrial aspect, however,
the chief value of the hills lies less in their eminent suitability for
cardamom cultivation than in the fact that they are now the chief seat
of the tea-planting industry. A large amount of British money has
been invested in this industry, the capital of one company alone
amounting to a million sterling. The High Range is the centre of the
greatest activity, and is the largest and most compact tea district in
Southern India. The hills are tapped by roads and bridle-paths, which
connect them with the Cochin State and the sea on the west and with
the British Districts on the east. The expenditure by the Travancore
State on public works in tEis area in r9o3-4 was Rs. I,47,o00. The
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