10 



these however, could be worked profitably, but an oxide of iron 

 exists which makes when mixed with oils, or preparations of lead, 

 a most valuable preservative of iron ; this is being worked to the 

 present day and is in use all over India. The timbers are not of 

 any great commercial value, but can be worked up into very 

 pretty articles, such as boxes, table tops, and small turnery goods. 



The non-edible fauna are tigers, leopards, hyenas, sloth bears, 

 wild dogs, wolves, jackals, foxes, and monkeys. Tha edible 

 game is deer, pigs, antelope, partridges, pea fowl, bustard, and 

 quail. Porcupines are a nuisance, so are the alligators, snakes, 

 and scorpions. In fact life in a jungle is one continued struggle 

 against conditions adverse to what we call civilized life. Even 

 the native servants if taken from the stations object to live 

 there, and we have to make use of the best we can get from the 

 jungle villages. But for all that jungle life has its charms, free- 

 dom from restraint and the tax collector being not the least of 

 them. You can go where you like, you can see nature and the 

 people as they were many centuries ago, and as I fancy they will 

 be for years to come. 



Are there other drawbacks ? Yes ! Cholera and dysentry 

 are ever present, so is jungle fever. Leprosy in its most re- 

 volting forms, is to be seen in most of the villages, especially in 

 the Rewah district. Wolves take to man eating, locusts eat up 

 the vegetation, famines occur and reduce the population to 

 vanishing point, while snakes are constantly answerable for 

 deaths among the natives. White ants eat everything that teeth 

 can make an impression upon, and the wonder is that man can 

 hold his own under such conditions. Yet he does, and there are 

 evidences in this vei*y jungle of a high state of civilization having 

 existed there in days gone by, an account of which I will detail 

 on some future occasion, if such a subject is one that will interest 

 our mcuibers 



THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 14th. 

 Lecture at the Banqueting Room, Hove Town Hall, 



ON 



CURIOUS DWELLERS ON OUR SHORES 



(with Lantern Illustration). 



BY 



Mb. W. H. SHRUBSOLE, F.G.S. 



