THE SAL FOKESTS. 387 



winds, and dependent for their water on a small stag- 

 nant pool polluted by tlie drainage of decaying vege- 

 tation. The result was death from cholera, or some 

 other malignant bowel-complaint, of three out of the 

 four, and the retreat of the only survivor. However 

 worthy of praise, such an enterprise cannot be looked 

 on as a fair experiment. But it cast a gloom over the 

 prospect of further attempts of the same sort, and has 

 never again been repeated. The example of the 

 missions to the Kols of Bengal and the Karens of 

 Burma, where the combination of profitable industrial 

 enterprise with theological teaching has been found to 

 be singularly effective in the propagation of the Gospel 

 among aboriginal races, may point to the desirability 

 of some such system being attempted among the un- 

 sophisticated savages of these wilds by those who are 

 now preaching in vain to the semi-Hindii tribes further 

 west. 



Some time ago a French gentleman took up a con- 

 siderable tract of the finest land in one of these valleys. 

 But it soon appeared that he had no intention of real 

 colonisation, and had, in fact, been merely speculating on 

 the value of the forest produce of the land. This and 

 other symptoms of laud-jobbing have, I believe, induced 

 some reconsideration of the rules for the sale of the fee 

 simple of waste lands. One thing may be relied on, 

 however — that whatever title a settler may here obtain 

 from the Government will be an absolute one, every 

 existing or possible private interest having been fully 

 determined before the available wastes were declared by 

 law to be state property. 



In such a well-watered, shady, and grassy region as 

 this Upper Narbada valley, it is inevitable that wild 

 animals should abound. The hilly ranges which separate 



2 c 2 



