GOLGONDA TALUK.
This is one of the three Government taluks in the district. It consists of two widely differing portions — the low coautry and the hills.
The former resembles oenerally the rest of the coastal plain of the district, sloping towards the sea and being covered with undulating red land broken up by low hills. The southern boundary of the taluk runs along a fairly continuous line of the latter, the highest point in which is the striking Sanjívikonda, 2,145 feet, so named because it is supposed to produce medicinal herbs good for many ailments. Near Kottakóta is the Komaravólu áva, one of the few natural lakes in the Presidency.
The hill portion of the taluk is all within the Agency and forms the southernmost corner of the '3,000 feet plateau' already several times referred to. It drains northwards, mainly through the Gureprau or Páléru river, which is full of fish, into the Siléru. It consists of a jumble of steep and broken hills which average about 2,500 feet, contain some fair plateaus at about that level, run up in many places to 4,000 feet and over, and produce the heaviest jungle of any part of the plateau. Some of this (round Gúdem, for instance) is moist evergreen growth and includes (see p. 114) tree-ferns, orchids, and many varieties of the smaller ferns. The maddi (Terminalia tomentosa) and gallnut (T. chebula) trees are especially numerous. The tops of the higher hills are usually bare, their sides and the lower hills carrying most of the forest, while the more level country is often covered with large stretches of grass land dotted with scattered trees gnarled and twisted by the annual jungle fires. The outer southern slopes are clothed with good forest which is seldom burnt, and at the foot of them, especially round Kondasanta, are masses of splendid bamboos.
The principal ghát is from Koudasanta to Lammasingi, nine miles, part of which is just practicable for carts. Rougher tracks lead up from Krishnadévipet and Koyyúr to Peddavalasa. From Lammasingi two jungle paths lead northwards across the hills to Kondakambéru in Malkanagiri taluk, one viá Lótugedda and Kórukonda and thence alongside the Gureprau river down a bad ghát to Kondakambéru; and the other through Chintapalle,
