58
Tnticorin.
Tuticorin, a Municipal town, is nine miles to the eastward of us. There were fifty-eight deaths
there from cholera during the period above-mentioned.* Muperapetty is a
village one mile to the north of us ; it contains 663 inhabitants, but there was
no death there from cholera during the period mentioned above. This village is on the high road
to Madura ; it is built upon quartz rock ; is dry and well drained. On the
western side the country is open ; a quarter of a mile from the village is a
ridge of quartz rock, about forty feet above the level of the high road. This
ridge runs for some miles, like a backbone through the country ; and on either side of it, the land
falls off with a gentle slope east and west. On the eastern side of the village, there is an extensive
rice cultivation and large tanks.
Village on quartz
rock.
Ottapidaram.
Conservancy attend-
ed to.
Ottapidaram is the talook town, and contains 1,115 inhabitants. There was no death there from
cholera during the period. This town is also built upon quartz ; it is somewhat higher than the
adjacent fields, the country round it is open, extensive, and healthy. The town is tolerably well
planted, and every year something is being done to improve it. Being the
residence of the Tahsildar, and being frequently visited by the Collector or
his Assistants—besides being a Police Station—its sanitary arrangements are
carefully attended to ; indeed all the villages which I have named being in the vicinity of the talook,
or to some extend under my influence, are more or less attended to, and moreover the people are
beginning to see that cleanliness is profitable in more ways than one. The
following statistics may have some interest for you. By the Aneroid,
Puthiamputtur is eighty feet above the level of the sea ; the barometer and thermometer are registered
twice daily ; the highest reading of the barometer of the period mentioned was 30' 12, the lowest
29'64 ; the highest reading of the thermometer being 98°, and the lowest 78° (indoors) ; during the
period we had forty-two rainy days, the total fall of rain being 20££ inches. The rain register
at Ottapidaram shows but thirty-three rainy days for the same period, and the total fall registered
is 20££- inches. The readings from the rain register at Tuticorin I have not been able to get, but
I have reason to know that the fall there has been very scant.
Meteorology.
Against fourteen successive rainy days which we had last month, there are but three reported
from Tuticorin. Between us and Tuticorin there are nine miles of a flat, almost treeless, country.
The vicinity of the town consists of low sandy flats, so that there is nothing to attract the passing
clouds as they roll down from the north or north-east."
No. 2.
Extended inquiry re-
garding the sanitary
condition of the Mis-
sion District.
" Your letter of the 6th instant should have had an earlier reply ; but, as my investigations
extended over a wide field, delay was unavoidable. I have now the pleasure of
sending you the results of my inquiries. I should observe that these inquiries
have been confined entirely to my own district or pariah, sufficiently large, how-
ever, to give a fair idea of the state of North Tinnevelly, as the district is
from 50 to 60 miles in length.
Sawyerpuram Division of the district lies but a few miles from the north bank of the river.
The soil is for the most part that which is generally known as the "red sand, " consisting of the
detritus of quartz rock, and containing a large share of black grains of iron ore. On this soil the
water is good. The eastern portion of the division is bounded by the sea ; it consists of, in places, a
fine strong clayey soil, well cultivated with rice ; in other places, along the coast line, of lagoons of
brackish water, stagnant for a considerable portion of the year. The palmyra juice and sugar form a
very considerable portion of the food of the inhaibtants. During the floods of last year the eastern
part of this division, lying as it does on the very mouth of the river, suffered very severely. The
village of Sawyerpuram in which the Theological Seminary stands gives its name to the division, and
is about thirteen miles south of Puthiamputtur. My inquiries extended over twenty villages in that
division, i.e., over seven in Sawyerpuram west, and thirteen in Sawyerpuram east, or that part which
lies on the sea, and the following results were obtained :—
Sawycrpuraw West.
Saimjerpuram.—A village containing 126 inhabitants. There were four cases of cholera during
the epidemic but no deaths.
Subbramanyapuram.—A village quarter mile south of Sawyerpuram, containing 800 inhabitants.
There were nineteen cases of cholera, and of these five died.
* The water-supply of Tuticorin is said to be generally brackish, and of doubtful quality.—(W. R. C.)