164

INDIA

moist, and enervating, and relieved only by the daily sea
breezes.
There is no town of importance in the northern
division of the Karnatic, which is but a narrow strip
adjoining a coast whereon the surf beats continuously ;
but the central division includes Madras, Arcot, Pondicherri,
 and many other important towns; and the southern
division maintains the chief wealth of the Madras presidency.
 Trichinopoli, Kadalur (Cuddalore), Nagapatnam
(Negapatam), Tanjore, and many places associated with
the history of our first occupation of India, are to be
found in the south. Here also are the best examples of
Hindu religious architecture, and the seat of much of the
best art work of the country. The soil of the coast
districts is an admixture of sand and loam suitable to
palm growth ; rice is the chief agricultural product of the
low lands wherever irrigation is possible. On the highlands
 millet is raised as the staple for food. Sugar,
cotton, indigo, and tobacco are all grown where the soil
is favourable.
The plains of the Karnatic are connected with the flat
coast districts of Western India by a gap between the
south-western spurs of the Nilgiris and the southernmost
extension of the Western Ghats. This extension runs from
the gap southwards to within 20 miles of Cape Comorin
in one single range, dividing the native state of Travancore
 from the Karnatic. Through the gap (called the
Coimbatore gap) the railway connecting the west and east
coasts at Beypur and Nagapatam respectively now runs.
The narrow low strip which borders the west coast of
India includes the official districts of Malabar (north of
Travancore), North and South Kanara, and the Konkan.
[ts characteristics are very similar throughout. It is never
entirely level excepting close to the littoral, and is covered
with sand and overgrown with cocoa palms. Near the
foothills of the Western Ghats there is soil suitable for
rice cultivation, and rice here, as throughout Southern
India, is the chief agricultural product. The villages are
mostly perched on the lower spurs of the Western Ghats,