THE NARBADA VALLEY. 49 



life of combined outdoor exercise and indoor occupation 

 which forms the healthiest sort of existence in India. 

 The midday sun, if a little hot for hard work in the 

 open air, is just sufficient to make the temperature 

 under canvas delis^htful, while the morninofs and 

 eveninofs are cool and bracinoj, and the nisfhts cold 

 enough to make several blankets a necessity. In 

 January, ice will generally be found on w^ater that has 

 been exposed all night. Nothing can, in my opinion, 

 exceed the exhilarating effect of a march at such a 

 season, with pleasant companions, through a country 

 teeming with interest in its scenery, its people, and its 

 natural productions, such as is this region of the 

 Narbada valley. 



The valley was not long ago — not long, that is, in 

 the history of countries — a hunting ground of the 

 Gonds and other wild tribes who are now chiefly con- 

 fined to the hills which surround it. At most, it could 

 have been but scantily patched by their rude tillage 

 before the arrival of the Hindu races, who have cleared 

 its forests, driven the wild elephant that roamed 

 through them to the far east, and covered its black soil 

 with an unbroken stretch of wheat cultivation that 

 strikes every visitor with admiration. In less than 

 three centuries this has been done ; and yet it is the 

 custom to say that India is an unprogressive country, 

 that she has been standing^ still since the besjiunino; of 

 history ! Everything shows that this country is still in 

 its very youth. The people, strong-limbed and healthy, 

 rejoicing in the rude abundance that falls to the lot of 

 energetic races tillino; an almost virsrin soil. Tillinir it 

 roughly, it is true, getting from it nothing approaching 

 to the quantity of produce extracted by the denser 



