48 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



belt Ivino- between the hills and the plains, where timber 

 transactions generally took place, and the chief depots 

 for forest produce had been established. When by 

 chance our direct route from forest to forest led across 

 such an open region, our movements were as rapid as 

 man and beast could make them ; and at the earliest 

 possible moment we hurried again from the face of 

 civilisation, like ghosts at cock-crow, to bury ourselves 

 again in the depths of the wilderness. In after years, 

 when employed in revenue work in a populous district, 

 I saw the reverse of the picture. Marching by fair 

 roads and easy stages, with a duplicate set of canvas 

 houses (for such our large Indian tents really are), one 

 of which goes on over-night and is pitched ready for 

 your arrival in the morningf, in the deep shade of some 

 mango grove, near a populous village which supplies all 

 your wants ; starting after the morning cup of hot coffee 

 to ride slowly along through green fields and grassy 

 plains ; and looking on the forest-covered hills on the 

 blue horizon only as an agreeable vanishing point in the 

 landscape, or as unpleasantly complicating the questions 

 of liquor excise and police administration ! It is 

 amazing what a difference the point of view makes. 

 The man who has dwelt for years among the forests, 

 and their simple wild inhabitants, will regard nearly 

 every question that arises in a wholly different light 

 from him whose experience has lain only among the 

 corn fields of the plains, and their tame and settled 

 tillers. And each of them will probably arrive at a 

 conclusion as little comprehending the whole bearings 

 of the question as the other. 



The climate of Central India in the cold season, that 

 is, from November to March, is almost perfect for the 



