380 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



of some such system being attempted among the unsophisti- 

 cated 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 considerable 

 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 land- 

 jobbiDg have, I believe, induced some reconsideration of the 

 rules for the sale of the fee simple of waste lands. I have 

 given the existing rules in an Appendix ; but possibly 

 these may now be subjected to modification. 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 Narbadi valley, it is inevitable that wild animals 

 should abound. The hilly ranges which separate the valleys 

 contain the bison, the sambar, and the black bear, like similar 

 tracts in other parts of the province. These are animals 

 peculiar to no part of India, and the same may be said of 

 the spotted deer, which affects the densely wooded banks of 

 the larger streams. But, as I have said, we are here within 

 the limits of the great sal belt, and come upon some animals 

 which I have noticed as coinciding in range therewith. 



Chief in interest among these is the beautiful twelve- 

 tined deer (Rucervus Duvaucellii), called by some the Bara- 

 singha, a name which simply means " twelve-tined," and 

 which is applied also to the Kashmir stag (C. Cashmiriensis). 

 In size it is intermediate between the sambar and the spotted 



