PLAGUE IK INDIA. 



315 



PLAGUE-FREE VILLAGES OF THE KONKAN. 



Take for comparison the district of Ratnagiri and the adjoining 

 district of Satara. The coast district might seem to be in some res{)ects 

 the more liable of the two; it lias a denser population, there is a con- 

 stant traffic of the people between it and Bombay City (which is said 

 to contain 100,000 natives of Ratnagiri. working class and middle 

 class) , and it is as much an agricultural district as Satara, with about 

 the same number of village communities and one-third more houses 

 per square mile. Again, in matter of fact, plague has been intro- 

 duced into the numerous small harbors along the coast dozens of times. 

 But it has never taken hold of the villages, and has been so little in- 

 digenous in the coast places that the annual average of deaths for the 

 whole district from first to last has been only 400, while that of 

 Satara for the last four years has been nearly 30.000. 



PLAGUE IX TAVO ADJOINING DISTRICTS. 



a To February. 



Clearly there is something in the Ratnagiri villages unfavorable to 

 plague, and something in the Satara villages peculiarly favorable to it. 

 1 have visited both, and shall give bi'iefiy what I believe to be the 

 relevant points of difference. The Konkan is a rocky region. Look- 

 ing down upon it in that magnificent view from one of the '' points "" 

 of ^fahablesliwai-, one might take it to l)e a great barren land of red 

 rock, l)ut after descending some mih's by the zigzag mountain road, 

 one comes to patches of cultivation a.nd to scattered hamlets, and ;'.t 

 the end of 25 miles to a large village surrounded by cultivated field-. 



The map of the disti-ict shows that there ai-e many such villages 

 liidden in the foldings of the hills, and l)uilt usually along a stream. 

 M}^ notes relate to a village on the Savitri River, V) miles from the 



