316 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



remedy ; lie can pick and steal enough to make up the de- 

 ficiency ; and he does so. But the subaltern of infantry, or 

 the young civilian, being incommoded with the troublesome 

 commodity called honour, have no such resource ; aftid so 

 they have nothing for it but to knock off their Arab, and 

 other little luxuries, and fag away through an ill-concealed 

 period of indigence to higher grades and better pay. 



All this civilisation has of course greatly deteriorated the 

 place as a residence for him whose pleasures lie with the 

 jungle and its wild inhabitants. In the old times, Jubbulpur 

 was almost the perfection of a sportsman's headquarters. It 

 lay nearly at the head of the last of the great basins of the 

 Narbada* valley, which have been reclaimed by population and 

 agriculture. These basins are a characteristic of the valley, 

 and within the limits of our province are four in number ; 

 great circular plains surrounded by steep hills, filled with 

 deep alluvial soil, through which the river moves slowly in 

 long silent reaches, with here and there a gentle stream. Be- 

 tween them lie shorter sections of rugged ground, where the 

 hills on either side converge, and through which the river 

 tumbles in a less placid course, short pools being connected 

 by long broken rapids. -A little way above Jubbulpur, the 

 last of these basins is terminated by the again converging hills, 

 and from this point up to the little civil station of Mandla* the 

 river flows through a narrow valley, very scantily cultivated 

 here and there, and generally covered along the river-side 

 by bamboos, and on the hills by a low jungle composed of the 

 commoner sort of trees. Many little tributary streams joined 

 the river in this part of its course. These ran up into the 

 partially cultivated uplands on either side of the valley ; and 

 in the cold season, when they contained water and green vege- 

 tation, afforded cover to great numbers of wild animals of 



