GHATS, Ws. The name (see Grum below) applied to two converging ranges of mountains, or scarpments, which run parallel with the east and west coasts of the peninsula of India, hence known as the Eastern and Western. Ghats. The Eastern Ghats extend, with an average height of 1500 feet from the vicinity of Orissa to Coimba tore, along the eastern side of the Indian Penin sula, a distance of from 50 to 150 miles from the Bay of Bengal (Map: India, C 6). Before joining the kindred ridge at this last-mentioned point, they send forth, about 36 miles to the north of Madras, a spur common, as it were, to both ranges, and reaching the other range to the north of the gap of Palghatcheri. To the south of the departure of this connecting chain, the Eastern Ghats become less continuous and dis tinct.
The Western Ghats stretch from the south side of the Tapti to their junction with the kin dred ridge, at a distance of 20 miles from Cape Comorin, or, in fact, to Cape Comorin itself (Map; India, B 5). Though they are gen erally far more continuous and distinct than the Eastern Ghats, yet they are sharply divided by the gap of Palghatcheri, 16 miles wide, the northern section measuring 800 miles in length, and the southern 200. Their general elevation
appears to vary from about 3000 feet to fully 7000 feet. The peak of Dodabetta, in that portion of the Western Ghats known as the Nilgiris, is 8760 feet above the level of the sea. The opposite faces of these mountains differ re markably from each other. Landward, there is a gradual slope to the tableland of the Deccan; seaward, almost perpendicular preci pices, to speak generally, sink at once nearly to the level of the sea, at a distance ranging from 40 to 70 miles, but at one place approaching within six miles. From this peculiarity, aggra vated by the heavy rains which the southwest monsoon dashes against the lofty barrier before it, the maritime strip, more particularly toward the south, presents that singular feature of stagnant shallow lakes known as the 'Back waters.' See COCHIN.