A RUN THKOUGH KATHIAWAR. 201 



thick jungly hills and forest of the Gi'r, which is 

 'still the habitat of many lions, but is so unhealthy 

 that it is almost never visited except in the depth 

 of the hot season, and even then but rarely. This 

 peninsula of Kathiawar the ancient Saurashtra 

 is surrounded by the Gulf of Cambay, the Arabian 

 Sea, the Gulf of Kutch, and a continuation of the 

 salt-covered liunn of Kutch, by which and a neck 

 -of firmer land it is attached to the mainland of 

 Guzerat. Thus its position is somewhat isolated ; 

 and, until recent years, it has had almost no external 

 trade, except that carried on by pirates and slave- 

 dealers. Jiu uglily speaking, it is about 160 miles 

 in breadth, by 200 in extreme length, and has an 

 area of about 22,000 square miles, and a population 

 of under 2,000,000. Thus it has an area of rather 

 more than two-thirds that of either Ireland or Scot- 

 land ; and, socially and politically, it has not a few 

 points of resemblance to the condition of those 

 countries a few centuries ago. Physically and clim- 

 atically, however, it differs greatly from them both. 

 Here are no great chains of mountains, or deep 

 fresh - water lakes, or long arms of the sea. The 

 coast is compact ; and by far the greater part of 

 the peninsula is a plain, broken only by low rugged 

 undulations and the beds of streams, dry during 

 more than half of the year. The mountain-mass of 

 Girnar rises from nearly level plains in the south- 

 east of the country to a height of 3500 feet; but 



