JUNGLES IN CENTRAL INDIA 275 



It is easy to get lost in them, as all are exactly alike, and 

 the labour of climbing up the ridges to ascertain the 

 direction is considerable. While following the hollows 

 one can see nothing, and must walk by endless windings 

 one knows not whither. One cannot imagine a more 

 desolate and utterly bewildering place to get into. The 

 direction in which the nullahs run is quite uncertain, so 

 that following them takes the wearied wanderer alternately 

 in every direction, and the heat of the sun beating down 

 into the hollows is something appalling. The chief sound 

 to be heard is the sighing of the hot wind, always sweeping 

 on from the north-west. The few straggling stalks of 

 bent grass which find root in the caked, hard soil are always 

 waving in the breeze, and the dust flying around. The 

 scarcity of timber in these fertile plains is much felt by 

 the villagers, and, having no firing, they must use all the 

 cow-dung, which ought to manure the land, for fuel 

 (called Mpla), the odour of which is strong. Then there 

 is the constant chirping of the crickets and cicadas, the 

 sound of which quite fills the sultry air. These sounds 

 and smells, and the never-failing heat of the ground by 

 night and the burning sun by day, must be felt and ex- 

 perienced before anyone can understand what India is 

 like. The impressions are such as no other country pro- 

 duces. While the hot winds are blowing the heat is 

 intense and like a furnace, dry and scorching, but not at 

 all depressing or relaxing, except in the night, if the wind, 

 as it sometimes does, ceases. But in the rains all energy 

 is gone. 



The plains south of the Jumna in the Jalaun district are 

 very suitable to the support of the Indian antelope [Anti- 

 lope hezoartica), commonly called the black buck, in 

 Hindustani Mr an. The natives do not molest them, 

 from motives which forbid the destruction of animal life. 



18—2 



