432 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTKAL INDIA. 



may have led to some variation in an otherwise indigenous 

 race. During the operations of the Khedda^ 117 of the 

 elephants were actually caught, of which thirty-five sub- 

 sequently died from exposure and disease in so remote 

 a tract, where proper facilities for keeping newly caught 

 elephants were wanting. The total expenditure amounted 

 to 8000, and the value of those which survived was 

 9650, leaving the State by so much a gainer in mere 

 money by the undertaking, besides removing so serious an 

 obstacle to the progress of tillage and the realisation of the 

 public revenue. About fifty more elephants were supposed 

 to be left in this part of the country, besides a good many 

 w T hich probably retreated further east. These it would not 

 pay to pursue further, so they were left alone. But they 

 were thoroughly cowed into harmlessness, and it may not 

 be a matter for regret that a breeding stock of this most 

 useful of wild animals has been left in a tract which for 

 many years can scarcely be useful for any other purpose. 



An enormous area of the tract we travelled over, in the 

 neighbourhood of the Hd,sdii river and its tributaries, was 

 found to be full of coal measures, which have since been 

 professionally examined, and reported to furnish mineral of 

 a highly valuable character. But the extreme remoteness 

 of these regions from any of the great centres of commerce 

 or transport must certainly put out of the question any 

 immediate utilisation either of the coal or the rich store of 

 timber which are now ascertained to exist. The same reason 

 renders all idea of colonising these wilds, except by the slow 

 process of extending population, a matter which it would not 

 be useful to discuss. Far superior lands in every respect, 

 whether of natural quality or situation, exist in great areas in 

 the Mandla highlands, which must come to be taken up 



