GHAUTS. The term Ghaut signifies properly a pass through the mountains, or a place where boats land. But it has been applied to designate the mountainous chains which run in a direction nearly north and south through southern India. These are divided into the Eastern and Western Ghauts. The eastern ridge commences in the south at a point within about 20 miles of Cape Comorin, where it appears to issue from the termination of the Western range. From the point of convergence the Eastern Ghauts take a northerly direction, and may be characterized rather as detached groups and clusters of hills than as a regular range until they reach the latitude of 11. 40., when they assume the character of a continuous chain. The ridge then skirts the coast of Coromandel in a north-westerly direction to the vicinity of the city of Madras. At Naggery, in Lat. 13. 20., it forms a junction with the chain which crosses the peninsula in a south-westerly direction to the Neigherries, where, according to some authorities, the point of junction between the two great ranges of Coromandel and Malabar should be regarded as taking place, instead of at Comorin as before stated. The course of the Eastern Ghauts north of the point of junction with the transverse range, is continued in a northerly direction, and terminates in the vicinity of Balasore, where they unite with the Vindhyas mountains, and thus constitute one side of the triangle on which rests the table-land of the Deccan. In regularity and grandeur the Eastern Ghauts bear no comparison with those of Western India; their average elevation does not exceed 1500 feet. The intermediate table-land has consequently a gradual slope to the eastward, as indicated by the drainage of the country in that direction. All the principal rivers—the Godavery, Cauvery, Kistna, and Pennaur,
Ghauts. though deriving their sources from the base of the Western Ghauts, find their way into the Bay of Bengal through fissures in the Eastern Ghauts. According to Captain Newbold, the mean elevation of the table-land around Bangalore and Nundidroog above the sea is 3000 feet; northerly, towards Hyderabad, it sinks to 1800 feet; and a little south of Bangalore it falls by rather abrupt steps 1400 feet to the level of the plains of Salem; whence to Cape Comorin the mean height of the country is about 400 feet. The average height of the low country between the Ghauts and the sea, on both the coasts of Coromandel and Malabar, may be roughly estimated at 200 feet, rising at the base of the mountains to 800 feet. On the Coromandel side the slope to the sea is gentle, exhibiting the alluvial deposits borne down from the higher portions of the table-land. Granite, gneiss, and mica slate, overlaid by clay slate and hornblende, constitute the geological strata of these mountains.