It was next suggested that Kapkonda, a higher hill south-west of Galikonda CHAP. I. Hills. 'having a considerable extent of table-land on the summit, sufficient to encamp an army upon,' might make a better site for the sanitarium, but this was examined and also condemned; and in 1861 it was decided to proceed no further with this unlucky venture. Mr.Fane gave his bungalow to his head sheristadar, Mr. McMurray, in 1865. The remains of his garden and the graves of the two veterans may still be seen on the hill. The Raja of Vizianagram has a coffee estate at Anantagiri, on the way up to Galikonda from the plains, and close by stands the bungalow which Mr. H. G. Turner, Collector from 1881 to 1889, built when he was constructing the Anantagiri ghat (see p. 137) up to this part of the plateau.
West of, and parallel to, this 3,000 feet plateau, and about 1,000 feet below it, The 2,000 feet plateau. lies a table-land which consists of the Jeypore and Naurangpur taluks and is known as 'the 2,000 feet plateau' or 'the Jeypore plateau.' Like its more elevated neighbour, it drains westwards into the Godavari basin through the Kolab, Indravati and other rivers, but at the northern corner it drops down into the valley of the Tel, a tributary of the Mahanadi.
This tract differs altogether from the 3,000 feet plateau in other matters besides altitude. The Malkanagiri taluk. It receives a heavier rainfall, so that the basin of the Indravati and much of Jeypore taluk are covered' with broad sheets of rain-fed paddy instead of dry crops; it is almost level instead of being one mass of hills; and in the north of Naurangpur and the west of Jeypore it contains miles and miles of thick forest, chiefly sal.
At its southern extremity it drops abruptly down to the third plateau—the Malkanagiri taluk—which is another thousand feet lower on an average, and a good deal more than this in its south- western corner. Malkanagiri village is only 641 feet above the sea. This part of the hills is the most sparsely populated tract in the Presidency, and is one great jungle containing thick forest in places but being largely covered with coarse grass ten feet high dotted with scattered saplings. It drains into the Saveri and sileru, two more tributaries of the Godavari.
All this hilly country, though malarious in the extreme and held in abject dread by the natives of the plains, wins the best affections of almost every European officer whom fate leads to serve within it. The beauty of its scenery, its cooler and more invigorating air, the chances of sport, the absence of the mass of detail and routine which binds an official in the plains hand and foot to his office-table, the infrequency of petty squabbles, intrigue