200 Notes on Natural History in India. [Sess. 



It is much as if I were to describe the north of Scotland as 

 being geologically a primary country, Ireland a secondary one, 

 and England a tertiary one ; or were to say that in the 

 eighteenth century the Scotch lived on oatmeal, the English 

 on wheat, and the Irish on potatoes. This is, of course, not 

 the case now, since the repeal of the corn laws ; but it was 

 essentially true when I was a boy, and there may be other old 

 people still alive who remember the time when the Scotch 

 lived on oatmeal. I rather regret the old days, and believe 

 that if the Scotch of the present day Lived, like their ancestors, 

 on oatmeal and home-brewed beer, instead of tea and white 

 bread, they would have better teeth, and more correct religious 

 and political opinions. Samuel Johnson, in the first edition of 

 Ms dictionary, defined oats as " the food of horses in England 

 and of men in Scotland." Most Scotchmen know Lord Eli- 

 bank's commentary on this, " And where will you find such 

 horses or such men ? " There is a German proverb, " What a 

 man eats, that he is ;" and I would warn the Scotchman who, 

 instead of taking oatmeal porridge to breakfast and a gigot of 

 mutton to dinner, eats, like an Englishman, ham to breakfast 

 and roast-beef to dinner, that he is simply turning himself into 

 an Englishman. We — those of us who are Lowlanders, at least 

 — are English by descent and language ; difference of diet was 

 the only real difference between us. Bruce and Wallace fought 

 and conquered, that oatmeal-eaters should not be ruled over by 

 beef-eaters. It is true the people of the county of Aberdeen 

 have always lived on beef, but they have always been Episco- 

 palian and anti-Presbyterian in their sympathies. In a county 

 fitted for rearing cattle, and not for rearing sheep, they could 

 not be anything else. 



Having given this sketch of the botany and geology of India 

 generally, I propose to take up one county and describe it 

 more in detail. Of course, I must take a county with which 

 I myself am acquainted; and of these, the county of Banda, 

 on the south bank of the Jumna, is, on the whole, best suited 

 for my purpose. I may mention that British India is divided 

 into counties, each governed by an English magistrate. Thus, 

 the great province known by the name of the North- West 

 Provinces and Oudh, which has a population of 44 millions, 

 is divided into 49 counties; so that each county has, on an 



