ADVENTURES IN CAMP AND JUNGLE. 89 



portion being mango. To the west of the Samburmuttee river* 

 which flows under the walls of the town of Ahmedabad, the 

 country is more open and less cultivated, but in many parts 

 are immense tracts covered with wheat and cotton. Conti- 

 guous to these are often found extensive salt plains, to which 

 the Saiseen antelope retire during the heat of the day, return- 

 ing again in the evenings and at night to feed in the fields, 

 where they do great damage to the crops. The cultivators 

 seldom interfere with them, but endeavour sometimes to drive 

 them off by placing fuel in long stripes along the edges of the 

 fields. In the evening they ignite these at the ends next the 

 wind, and the fire smoulders till morning. The plan is not, 

 however, very efficacious. The Jeytulpoor country, lying 

 south of Ahmedabad, is richly wooded, and in many parts 

 nylghae and chinkara are very numerous. There are also many 

 good tanks, and in these, and in the rice-fields which they 

 irrigate, excellent snipe-shooting is to be had in the months 

 of December and January. I seldom cared to shoot more 

 than twenty or thirty couple at one time ; but on one occasion 

 I remember two men going out twenty miles to their ground, 

 and shooting during that day and for three hours on the fol- 

 lowing morning, and returning to the cantonment with 120 

 couple of snipe. 



I was at this time appointed to the Guzerat Eevenue Survey, 

 a branch of an establishment which has done much to" concili- 

 ate the natives, and to consolidate our empire in Western India. 



Throughout India the population, with the exception of 

 Bheels and other jungle tribes, resides entirely in towns and 

 villages. To each of these the land in the immediate vicinity 

 belongs, and it is either cultivated by individuals, or reserved 

 for grazing by the community in general. 



Previous to our occupation of the country, the boundaries 



