iv
Palaveram is the Depô´t of Native Corps on foreign service, conse-
quently many of the fever admissions in the Depô´t are not due to
local malaria. Many men return from Burmah, the Straits, or China
on account of fever.
Connexion of Ma-
laria with Cholera.
13. Condition of
Agriculture.
In this station there is a marked immunity both from malarious
fevers and cholera.
The surrounding plains are very little cultivated, owing possibly to the
thinness and poverty of soil. In the river valley, and wherever water
can be stored for irrigation, some rice is grown, but there is not much
cultivation around the cantonment.
(b.) Drainage ...
The natural drainage of the whole station is good. Except for a few
days in a year, when the river is in flood, there is always a free
outlet for surface and sub-soil waters in the direction of the river
valley. Surface drains and channels are kept in good order, and the
fall of rain on the hill slopes gives sufficient velocity to carry off
all surface impurity.
(c.) Irrigation ...
There is very little irrigation in the immediate neighbourhood.
14. River banks.
The right bank of the Adyar skirts the cantonment to the north-west.
Usually the stream of water is small, but in the dryest seasons there
is always some water flowing. The banks are from ten to fifteen feet
above the river bed in this part.
(b.) Level of water
relative to surface
of cantonment.
On the 23rd April 1870 I made the following observations :-
A well in a field near the bazaar, had water 21 feet below the surface
of the ground.
A well near the Priest's house		...	...	...	13	feet.
A well at the Sepoys' Place of Arms	...	...	...		161/2	"
One of a row of wells near the European barracks		11	"
The water level was, I believe, the same in all these wells. The dis-
tance from the surface depending on the fact that some wells were
sunk in higher ground than others. The level of the water in the
sub-soil near the European barracks corresponded very closely to
the water level in the river bed, about half a mile distant.
15. Position of
inhabited build-
ings in regard to
Higher ground.
The native bazaar at Palaveram stands on an undulating swell of ground,
and has complete natural drainage except to the south, where the
Chapel Hill, a bare mass of rock, rises a little above it. The Native
Infantry lines are placed on sloping ground, below the level of the
bazaar. The European Veteran Company and the European Barracks
are located nearer to the level of the river, and on the lowest level
of all. The Officers' houses are built along the bases of the hills, and
from these, the ground slopes away down to the almost level plain
on which the barracks and family-quarters stand.
16. Sub-soil
drainage.
Depth of water-
line below surface
in,
(a.) Wet weather.
(b.) Dry weather.
(c.) When Cholera
prevails.
(d.) Slope of
ground.
There is no artificial sub-soil drainage, but, owing to the configuration
of the surface, water does not stagnate in the sub-soil, the natural
fall being towards the river bed.
About seven or eight feet, in the barracks near the river.
From twelve to sixteen feet.
There is no prevalence of cholera here.
Towards the river.