country have been so skillfully terraced and levelled, and so permeated by
artificial channels, that every portion of it can be irrigated and dried at pleasure.
According as the slope of the ground is more or less rapid, each terraced plot
consists in some places of many acres, in others of a few square yards. We saw
them in every state of cultivation; some in stubble, some being ploughed, some
with rice-crops in various stages of growth. Here were luxuriant patches of
tobacco; there, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, yams, beans or Indian-corn varied the
scene. In some places the ditches were dry, in others little streams crossed our
road and were distributed over lands about to be sown or planted. The banks
which bordered every terrace rose regularly in horizontal lines above each other;
sometimes rounding an abrupt knoll and looking like a fortification, or sweeping
around some deep hollow and forming on a gigantic scale the seats of an
amphitheatre. Every brook and rivulet had been diverted from its bed, and
instead of flowing along the lowest ground, were to be found crossing our road
half-way up an ascent, yet bordered by ancient trees and moss-grown stones so
as to have all the appearance of a natural channel, and bearing testimony to the
remote period at which the work had been done. As we advanced further into the
country, the scene was diversified by abrupt rocky hills, by steep ravines, and by
clumps of bamboos and palm-trees near houses or villages; while in the distance
the fine range of mountains of which Lombock Peak, eight thousand feet high, is
the culminating point, formed a fit background to a view scarcely to be
surpassed either in human interest or picturesque beauty.
Along the first part of our road we passed hundreds of women carrying rice,
fruit, and vegetables to market; and further on, an almost uninterrupted line of
horses laden with rice in bags or in the ear, on their way to the port of
Ampanam. At every few miles along the road, seated under shady trees or slight
sheds, were sellers of sugar-cane, palm-wine, cooked rice, salted eggs, and fried
plantains, with a few other native delicacies. At these stalls a hearty meal may be
made for a penny, but we contented ourselves with drinking some sweet palm-
wine, a most delicious beverage in the heat of the day. After having travelled
about twenty miles we reached a higher and drier region, where, water being
scarce, cultivation was confined to the little flats bordering the streams. Here the
country was as beautiful as before, but of a different character; consisting of
undulating downs of short turf interspersed with fine clumps of trees and bushes,
sometimes the woodland, sometimes the open ground predominating. We only
passed through one small patch of true forest, where we were shaded by lofty
trees, and saw around us a dark and dense vegetation, highly agreeable after the
heat and glare of the open country.