Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore: With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planterElliot, Robert H. (Robert Henry)
History
Gold, Sport, and Coffee Planting in Mysore: With chapters on coffee planting in Coorg, the Mysore representative assembly, the Indian congress, caste and the Indian silver question, being the 38 years' experiences of a Mysore planter
Elliot, Robert H. (Robert Henry)
Caste -- India; Coffee; Karnataka (India) -- Description and travel; Karnataka (India) -- Politics and government
In the evening I sat for a long time in the bungalow veranda smoking my
cigar, and looking dreamily out at the moonlit falls, and observing from
time to time the scenic changes that were produced by the great masses of
mist which drifted up the gorge below me to be dispersed as they touched
the cliffs, and presenting, as they did so, most charming pictures. In the
morning, too, beautiful effects were to be seen, as masses of mist arose
from the chasm of the Rajah to flit in fleecy fragments across the face of
the falls. But the scenes about this spot are of endless variety, and I
must allow myself to mention only one more, which my companion saw one
morning from Watkin's platform when the iris hues were on the pool below
the falls, which, as the spray fell into it, seemed like a mass of golden
water dotted all over, as if yellow tinted rain were falling into it. On
some occasions visitors have illuminated the falls with fireworks, and by
floating over the falls ignited bundles of straw soaked in paraffin, and I
regret that I had not thought of following their example.
Next morning I set out on a drive of about 150 miles to my plantations in
Manjarabad. As we left the falls, we passed, and close to the river pool
above them, a tree covered with fruit which was being eaten by green
pigeons and other birds, and on looking up into it I was surprised, as it
is an animal of nocturnal habits, to see a large and beautiful flying
squirrel peering at me with a quiet but by no means apprehensive eye. I
was strongly tempted to shoot it for the sake of its skin, but my
companion, who had been much affected by the beauties of the falls, said
that it would be a sacrilege to shoot anything so near them. So I spared
his feelings and the poor squirrel, and am now very glad to think that I
did so. I may here mention that the traveller, though he sets out early in
the morning and late in the afternoon, very rarely sees anything in the
shape of big game, even though the jungles he may be driving through may
abound with it, and the sole exception I can remember, after numerous
journeys through them, occurred on the occasion of my drive home from the
falls, when, early one morning, a tiger bounded across the road at a
distance of about 100 yards ahead. It is also worthy of remark that you
very seldom see a snake, and, though I landed on the Western coast at
Carwar and travelled by easy stages by way of the falls to my estate, I
did not see a single snake during the whole course of the journey.
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