322 NILGIRI HILLS. Asylum at Loredale are the only institutions deserving notice. The former possesses a handsome building, erected in 1859 at a cost of £3800 ; its annual income is £740, and it contains reading and writing rooms and about 10,908 volumes. The Lawrence Asylum, like other institutions of the same name, is intended for children of British soldiers, whether orphans or not. It accommodates at present 390 children (330 boys and 60 girls). The children are housed, fed, clothed, and educated. They are taught trades, and employment is found for most of them on leaving. Telegraph and survey classes, carpenters', tailors', and shoemakers' shops, and a farm are attached to this institution. It is supervised by a Principal and a Committee, and has an income from all sources of about £10,000, derived from the endowments of the military male Orphan Asylum of Madras, Government grants, and profits on industries. An English newspaper is published in the District. Monumental Remains.—The antiquarian interest in the Nilgiri Hills principally centres round the rude stone monuments mentioned in a previous paragraph. Such relics are generally situated in commanding situations on the summits of hills and ridges. Some of the older agrams, or funeral circles, as now used by the Todas, have been opened, and found to contain weapons, pottery, etc. The best ancient bronzes and weapons have been found in Todanád and Paranganád, A large number of rude stone monuments—cairns, harrows, kistvaens, and cromlechs—are found all over the plateau, and their origin has been much discussed. The cairns are of several forms, -one commonly called the draw-well kind, consists of a circular wall; others seem to have been regularly built up, but the circle is enclosed by a heap of rough loose stones, sometimes built more carefully on the inner side of the circle, or faced inside with larger slabs, but sloping outside into a tumbled heap. A third kind consists merely of a circle, sometimes of long stones laid round on a sort of ridge, sloping inwards, sometimes of common rough stones embedded in the surface soil. The kistvaens are situated below Kotagiri. In these is found pottery with a rich red glaze, and many of the clay figures are represented with a high Tartar head-dress. These remains, says Dr. Caldwell, are not claimed by any of the races now existing on the hills, and seem to be of considerable antiquity. One of the cairns of this description opened by Mr. Breeks had an immense tree growing out of it and over it, which was estimated to be at least 800 years old. The most numerous of these remains are the cairns and barrows, which resemble each other, and which are found most often in groups and on the tops of hills and ridges. A few may be seen on the eastern sides of the Kundas near the Avalanchi bungalow. In recent researches, more than 40 of these cairns have been opened,
