From the summit of this wonderful mountain the spectator enjoys a beautiful prospect. The island of Salsette lies before him as if spread out on a map, affording a most agreeable variety of rice-fields and cocoa-nut groves, of villages and meadows, of woody hills and fruitful vales. The surrounding mountains form a foreground of grey rocks, dotted with trees, or excavated into dark grottoes, once the abode of fakirs, but now the retreats of tigers, snakes, huge bats, and enormous swarms of bees, while towards the south the horizon is bounded by the island of Bombay, with its forest of masts, towards the east by the mainland, towards the north by Bassein and the neighbouring mountains, and towards the south by the ocean. The enjoyment of the picturesque scene is marred only by the many tigers which infest the mountains, and frequently descend into the plain, where they not only carry away sheep and oxen, but also tear many a poor Hindoo to pieces. The rock-temples of Kanara are rivalled by those of Elephanta, Karli, and Ajunta, and far surpassed in magnificence and extent by the excavations of Ellora, near the town and fort of Dowlatabad, where a whole mountain of hard red granite has been hollowed out into an immense range of highly ornamented grottoes and temples, fit for the residence of a whole pantheon of deities, and for the reception of a whole nation of pilgrims. About three miles to the north of Madras, where the rock touches the sea, navigators had long remarked some pillars of stone rising from the water and covered with rude sculptures. From these the spot received the name of the Seven Pagodas. Most of them have since been destroyed by the tides, and one only is still standing, though tottering to its fall. These, however, were but the advanced posts of the colossal excavations in the rocky wall behind; for here also are seen large grottoes, porticoes, and temples, as at Ellora, though of somewhat smaller proportions, and of less beautiful execution. They are dedicated to the worship of Vishnu and Siva, and covered with inscriptions. A whole rock- town, or at least a vast sanctuary, thus lies concealed on this solitary coast. Similar cave-temples are met with in Cochin China, Birmah, Malwah, and Ceylon, where the spacious rock-temple of Dambool is deservedly celebrated for its antiquity, and for its numerous statues of Buddha, in the varied attitudes of exhortation and repose. On the banks of the mysterious Nile we find rock-temples rivalling those of India in colossal grandeur, and among these Ipsamboul is pre-eminent in splendour.