THE SAL FORESTS. 373 



latitude at so low an elevation, the tract is subject to 

 malarious fever during the months of October to January. 

 But experience shows that this influence lasts only so long 

 as the country continues uncleared. It is probable that the 

 Lower Narbada valley was equally unhealthy at one time, yet 

 it is now as healthy as any part of the country. Several 

 stations in these provinces have been set down in the middle 

 of jungles with as evil a reputation as this, and along with 

 the clearance of the jungle the fever was found to disappear. 

 The Wynaad, Assam, and Cachar are also standing instances 

 of the successful occupation of malarious countries by the 

 help of European enterprise. The malaria excepted, the 

 climate is highly favourable to colonisation, considering 

 the situation of the tract. No region out of the great 

 mountain ranges could probably be pointed to as possessing 

 such advantages of coolness and freshness as are here con- 

 ferred by the elevated situation, abundance of moisture, and 

 its attendant evergreen verdure. 



As for the obstacles supposed to be presented by the rank 

 vegetation and noxious animals, they are chiefly imaginary. 

 Immense plains lie ready for the plough, if merely the coarse 

 natural grasses were cleared away, there being no brush- 

 wood or heavy timber to speak of. The luxuriance of these 

 grasses is only evidence of the fatness of the land that lies 

 below ; and a torch applied in the month of May will, over 

 large tracts, remove all obstacle to the immediate application 

 of the plough. The wild animals, here as elsewhere, would 

 retire before the axe and plough of the settler. Such as are 

 noxious to human life are not really more so here than in 

 many other much more open parts of the country. In the 

 districts of Doni and Betul there is certainly a larger 

 number of tigers in the same area than in Mandki, and there 



