372 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



and then tlie familiar note of the cuckoo* (identical 

 with the European bird), and the voices of many birds^ 

 including the deep musical coo of the grand imperial 

 pigeon, heighten the delusion. But for the bamboo 

 thickets on the higher hills, whose light feathery foliage 

 beautifully supplements the heavier masses of the sal 

 that cling to their skirts, the scene would present 

 nothing peculiar to the landscape of a tropical country. 



The climate of these uplands is very temperate for 

 this part of India, showing a mean of about 77 degrees 

 of the thermometer during the hot season. The varia- 

 tion between the temperature of day and night is, 

 however, considerable, ranging from about 50 degrees 

 to 100 degrees as extremes durinor the hot season 

 under canvas. It would of course be much more 

 equable in a house, and the range is also far less on 

 the higher plateaux than in the lower valleys. In 

 the cold season (which corresponds to our winter) it 

 generally descends at night to freezing-point in the 

 open air, rising in a tent no higher than 65 degrees 

 or 70 degrees in the middle of the day. 



The country can scarcely be said to be jDopulated 

 at all, except within a short distance of Mandla itself,, 

 where the rich soil has been cultivated by an outlying 

 colony of Hindus from the Lower Narbada valley. 

 Mandla was at one time the seat of one of the Gond- 

 Eajpiit ruling dynasties, and the remains of their forts 

 and other buildings still crown in crumbling decay the 

 top of many a forest-covered mound. 



The Gonds are here a very poor and subdued race, 



long since weaned from their wild notions of freedom, 



with its attendant hardships and seclusion ; but still 



unreached by the influence of the general advancement 



* Cuculus canorus. 



