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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 24, p. 2.

a TRAVANCORE STATE the lake 1, is generally flat ; retreating from it the surface immediately becomes unequal, roughening into slopes which gradually combine and swell into the mountainous amphitheatre that Physical bounds it on the east, where it falls precipitately, aspects. but terminates less abruptly on the south. The collected villages, waving plains, palmyra topes, and extensive culti- vation of Nanchânad resemble in every particular the neighbouring province of Tinnevelly, except that it in no measure partakes of its comparatively arid sterility. Approaching northward this fertile plain is succeeded by the woody and rugged surface of the genuine Malayalam ; some few champaign tracts enclosed within this ocean of forest relieve the uniformity of the sylvan scene. 7.'he extent lining the coast for its whole length presents a fertility so near the sea that it imparts a peculiar character to the landscape. This rich and variegated tract is flanked by a mountainous barrier, and is finely con- trasted with the sombre magnificence and desolate solitude of those wilds of which the elephant seems the natural master; and though the landscape may be too much made up of this wild scenery, it boasts of many striking localities and peculiar beauties, if not of the sublime, at least romantic and picturesque kinds. The eye is arrested by the wild, rocky, precipitous acclivities and fantastic forms assumed by the moun- tains in the more southern parts; but proceeding north the bold and elevated contour of the Alpine tract is less sharply defined ; a few rugged cliffs and spiry points or conical summits alone breaking through the sameness of its rounded and sombre outline. This Apennine dissolves into clustering hills and romantic inequalities, at whose feet wind innumerable valleys, presenting (particularly in the middle parts) the most delightful landscapes whose natural beauties are embellished and diversified by the prospect of churches and pagodas. Indeed, the endless succession of houses and gardens scattered in picturesque order over the face of the country gives it entirely a different appearance from the other coast, the nudity of whose plains is unfavourably contrasted with the robe of florid and exuberant vegetation that for a great part of the year clothes Malayalam. The areca and coco-nut everywhere fringe those picturesque and sequestered glens, which gradually expand into the extensive plantations and culti- vated lands that skirt the sea and lake. This space is enlivened and fertilized by innumerable rivers and pastoral streams, whose borders are crowned with groves and cultivation that, everywhere, following their winding course, present a unique, interesting, and charming scenery, infinitely more diversified than most other parts of the Peninsula and one that would indicate abundance. This is especially the case in Kuttandd; the watery flatness of this fertile fen is relieved by the gardens and habitations so thickly strewn over its surface, which exhibits a network of rivers meandering through the verdure they create.' It has been truly remarked that `it will be difficult to name an- other land which, within so narrow limits, combines so many, so varied, ' That is, the line of backwaters referred to below.