9 



WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 16th. 1895. 



JUNGLE LIFE IN INDIA. 



BY 



Mk. JOHN LEWIS. 



The tract of jungle I am going to describe lies between 

 Allahabad, the chief city of the North- West Province of India, 

 and Jubbulpore, a military station in Central India. Its extent, 

 north and south, between those two places, is about 200 miles ; 

 while east and west, it runs up in a north-east direction to the 

 Ganges, near Mirzapore, and to the south-west it extends, I 

 believe, as far as the farther confines of Malwah. 



The country is of varied topographical character : low bush 

 covered hills; forest clad ranges of mountain tract; broad 

 streams, which in the rainy seasons are roaring torrents, while 

 in the hot seasons they are dry beds, with pools at intervals ; 

 arid rock -strewn plains ; and stretches of fertile valleys ; and in 

 these fertile valleys the villages that dot the country are to be 

 found. The villages are of the most primitive kind, with mud- 

 walled, one-storied houses, thatched with jungle-grass, and now 

 and then with tiles. The villagers are chiefly agriculturists, with 

 a small artizan element that makes the ploughs, forges their 

 simple iron work, and gins, spins, and weaves the small amount of 

 cotton clothing they require. The flocks and herds graze in the 

 adjacent jungle, which also supplies wood for their charcoal. 



All the industries are of the most primitive kind, oxen tread 

 out the grain, winnowing it is by the simple process of holding it 

 aloft and on letting it fall the wind carries the chafE away, the 

 grain remaining. Women grind the corn in small hand mills 

 the produce being made into coarse unferinented bread. No 

 artistic works of any sort are made by these people, and those we 

 found there evidently came from Benares, and such like places 

 where more cultivated workmen abound. In fact, so poor a class 

 of workers were they that we could only utilize them for the 

 roughest of our work — railway construction. 



The district as a field for the researches of the geologist, 

 mineralogist, botanist, naturalist, and sportsman, is a perfect 

 paradise. Coal, iron, manganese, and rich lime stone abound — 

 while traces of copper have been found in one place. None of 



