74 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



mixed advantage will be discussed further on. As labourers 

 their innate distaste to steady toil, born of long years of a 

 semi-nomadic existence, renders them inferior to the regular 

 Maratha navvy from the Deccan, who is also their superior in 

 muscular power, and can double the wages of any Gond at 

 this sort of work. 



On the 25th of January I quitted the main road down 

 the valley, near the little civil station of Narsingpur, and 

 struck off nearly at right angles to the south, marching direct 

 for the hills that bounded the horizon in that direction. 

 About half way through the march of fifteen miles the level 

 deep black soil of the valley began to give place to a red 

 gravelly tract of undulating conformation ; and numerous 

 flue Mhowa trees, forming groups that at a little distance 

 much resembled oaks, and half-cleared fields, gave indications 

 of the approach of the border belt of half-reclaimed land 

 which intervenes between the open plain and the forest- 

 covered hills. The Mhowa (Bassia latifolia) is one of the 

 most useful wild trees in this part of India. It is not cut 

 down like other forest trees in clearing the land for tillage, 

 its value being at first greater than that of the area rendered 

 unproductive by its shade and roots. As the country gets 

 more thickly peopled, however, the case is reversed, and it 

 generally disappears in long settled tracts. As a singular 

 instance of the influence sometimes exerted by social customs 

 on the physical character of a country, I may mention an 

 exception to this rule in the case of the district of Nimar, 

 which, even in its fully cultivated parts, is still thickly dotted 

 with Mhowa trees. The reason of this I believe to be that, 

 during the " times of trouble " referred to in my first chapter, 

 the majority of the small proprietors of the land were ousted 

 from possession of their fields ; but the custom having been 



