NELLORE, a district in Madras presidency, India, lying between 13° 25' and 15° 55' N. lat., and between 79° 9' and 80° 14' E. long., bounded on the N. by Kistna district, E. by the Bay of Bengal, S. by North Arcot and Chingleput, and W. by the Eastern Ghfits, separating it from Kamιil and Cuddapah. The area is 8739 square miles. The district comprises a tract of low-lying land extending from the base of the Eastern Ghâts to the sea. Its general aspect is forbidding: the coast-line is a fringe of blown sand through which the waves occasionally break, spreading a salt sterility over the fields. Farther inland the country begins to rise, but the soil is not naturally fertile, nor are means of irrigation readily at hand. Less than one-third of the total area is cultivated; the rest is either rocky waste or is covered with low scrub jungle. The chief rivers are the Pennair, Suvarnamukhi, and Gundlakamma. They are not navigable, but are utilized for irrigation purposes, the chief irrigation work being the anicut across the Pennair. Nellore is, however, very subject both to droughts and to floods. Copper was discovered in the western hills in 1801, but several attempts by European capitalists to work the ore proved unremunerative, and the enterprise has been abandoned since 1840. Iron ore is smelted by natives in many places. Nellore, with the other districts of the Carnatic, passed under •direct British administration in 1801....
The population of Nellore in 1881 was 1,220,236, including 1,138,031 Hindus and 61,344 Mohammedans. Four Christian missions are established in the district,—Roman Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, and Lutheran. Among the aboriginal tribes, the Yanadis are the most numerous. On the island of Sriharikota, from which Madras derives its firewood, they still live in the jungle, and refuse to cultivate the soil or rear cattle. They have adopted some form of Hinduism, but still worship their own demons and bury their dead. Five towns had in 1881 a population of over 5000—Nellore (27,505), Ongole (9200), Venkatagiri (7989), Kandukur (6601), and Addanki (6481). The climate is dry, the monthly temperature varying from about 74° F. in December to 90° in May; and the average annual rainfall is 36 - 53 inches.
In former days Nellore was celebrated for its textile fabrics, but the export has now ceased, though spinning and weaving for local consumption is carried on in many villages. Prior to the opening of the Madras Railway, Nellore formed the high road between the interior and the coast. The two principal ports are Kottapatam and Ittamukula, both in the north of the district. Indigo is exported by land to Madras at the rate of about 800,000 maunds a year. The chief means of communication is the Great Northern Trunk Road, which runs along the coast to the Bengal frontier. Water communication with Madras city is also afforded by the East Coast or Buckingham Canal.
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