PLAGUE IN INDIA. 



317 



the village above or below it. Toward the southern end of th(> dis- 

 trict the villages break up definitely into scattered luunlets. 



AVhat has been said of Katnagiri is true equally of the State of 

 Sawantwari adjoining it. which has had only 5 plague deaths several 

 years ago, besides some 50 deaths among fugitives from neighboring 

 plague districts. Also the Portuguese territory of Goa, with a far 

 denser country population than any of the British districts to the east 

 of the Ghats, but scattered in innumerable small clusters of houses or 

 l)amboo huts beside their gardens and fruit groves, is reported to have 

 had no plague, although it is in constant conununication with Bombay 

 by sea and with Dharwar and Belgaum by liill roads and the railway. 



PLAGUE-STRICKEN VILLAGES EAST OF THE (JIIATS. 



Let us now leave this poi)id()us coast region, haj)pily free from 

 plague, or almost free, and 

 cross the Ghats to the east- 

 ward. The ea.siest of the 

 mountain roads is the one 

 that ascends from the coast 

 to the hill station of Maha- 

 bleshwar and descends on 

 the eastern side to the 

 Southern Maratha Railway 

 at Wathar, a distance of 70 

 miles. An hour or two be- 

 low MahablesliAvar one comes 

 in sight of an altogether 

 dilferent kind of country 

 and a different type of vil- 

 lage from those west of the 



y^i , T7'* X J.1 • ii Fig. 3. — Villages of Satam. 



Ghats. I<irst, there is the 



upper basin of the Krishna River, with gigantic precipitous sides 

 of red rock and a perfectly flat bottom, shaped like one of those oval 

 bath tubs that are in common use in India. This lies in the district 

 of Satara and taluka of AVai, which was full of plague last cold 

 weather, some of the plague villages being in sight on the flat plain 

 below the carriage road. After passing through the plague-stricken 

 town of Wai the road continues due east over characteristic Deccan 

 country, which is shown in this lantern slide extracted from the sur- 

 vey map 1 inch to the mile (fig. 3). It will be seen that the villages 

 are now large, compact squares at intervals of several miles on a flat 

 ground absolutely bare of intermediate houses or hamlets. In this 

 small piece of map are included villages whose names recur several 

 years in the plague returns. I shall not give particulars of any of 



