Miscellaneous. 155 



it. In Singbhoom a tolerable quantity is gathered by Hindoos, but 

 of a third- or fourth-rate quality, also excellent iron ; of coal I never 

 found any traces. 



The open parts of the Kolehan are here and there scattered with 

 a scrub-jungle, composed chiefly of the Polass and Assun, on which 

 latter the tusser silk- worms are bred. The southern parts, where not 

 cultivated, are covered by extensive plains of grass, interspersed with 

 bushes ; entirely along the west boundary are forests of saul trees, 

 small and meagre on the hills, but reaching in the low rich valleys 

 to a size perfectly prodigious. In Anundpoor, towards Gangpoor, 

 are tracts covered entirely \vith the wild plantain, and many of the 

 hills arc clothed densely with bamboos. In marshy spots a strong 

 serviceable species of cane or ratan is found. The wild mango tree 

 is also very common in these forests, yielding a fruit far preferable 

 to the common kind found in the " topes" throughout India; it is 

 small, round, and full of juice, as sweet as honey. The date and 

 palm trees are not cultivated by the Koles, but are to be found near 

 Hindoo villages in Singbhoom ; cheretta, wild indigo, and arrow-root 

 are very common in the jungles. But to enumerate all the beautiful 

 flowers which enrich these green reti-eats — the fruits and roots, to 

 every one of which the natives attach some specific virtue or harm ; 

 the inexhaustible variety of plants, shrubs and fungi, ferns, creepers, 

 &c. which clothe, in all varieties of fantastic imagery, the shady dells ; 

 or the cool banks of foliage- canopied streams, — would be a task far 

 exceeding my powers or the limits of this memoir. 



The animals found in the Kolehan are the same as in other parts 

 of Central India, but not nearly so abundant as in better- watered 

 jungles ; besides which, the Koles and Oorias are inveterate hunters, 

 and their attacks on game of all kinds are pursued on an extermina- 

 ting scale. 



The elephant, vrhich is numerous in parts of the Jungle Mehals, 

 comparatively close to Medneepoor, is, strange to say, unknown 

 among the remote and w'ild regions of West Singbhoom ; the gower is 

 common in this latter region — two species are described by the na- 

 tives, a red and a black kind ; the urna and smaller wild buffalo are 

 very numerous about Anundpoor ; great varieties of deer haunt the 

 hills, the saumiir (C. riisa), neelgye (Damalis picta), spotted deer 

 (C axis), barking deer or Muntjac (C inuntjac), chikerac or four- 

 homed deer (C. chicqueru) : all these species, though so shy when 

 sought after as to be seldom met with, must be tolerably numerous, 

 from the depredations they commit on the fields of gram, boot, moong, 

 oorid, &c. which are planted near the jungles. The memina, a spe- 

 cies of mouse deer, is also fomid among rocks and underwood. The 

 antelope is confined to the w^ide open plains of Chynpoor in Sing- 

 bhoom, and very limited in number. 'Pigers and leopards abound. 

 Bears infest almost every clump of rocks throughout the plain ; they 

 are all of the long-lipped species (Ursus labiatus). Hyaenas inhabit 

 similar localities, but arc rare. There are no wolves, but there ap- 

 pear to be two distinct species of the jackal (C. aureus), one of which 

 is much larger, stouter and ruadier than what I remember of the 

 jackal of Bengal. The cry also is different, and is a wailing sound, 



