BUILDINGS AND BUNGALOWS. 137 



of a pool or streamlet, the all-important water 

 for turning the pulping machinery and supplying the 

 coolies. Farther away the ghaut road begins, and, 

 the hills sloping down, nothing more is seen of the 

 forest until the lowlands unrol themselves, stretching 

 far away like a wonderful fabric of green and grey 

 cloth. At this distance towns and villages cannot 

 be made out, but just where the great fertile plain 

 melts away into indistinguishable distance, again 

 towering mountains rise up, ascending tier above tier 

 into the sky. Such a view, we cannot but think, may 

 do much to keep a man healthful and contented. 



This house, however, is not put up directly. The 

 planter, when he has purchased land and has to 

 open it, generally manages to get a " shake down " 

 for the first month or so at the bungalow of some 

 neighbour, paying him, of course, for board and 

 lodging, and walking to and fro between the new 

 and old estate every day ; the coolies doing the 

 same and billeting themselves as they best may, 

 unless there are villages at hand, upon the natives 

 of the established estate. After a little while of 

 this, an Englishman will probably be glad enough 

 to set up housekeeping for himself. The first rough 

 bungalow should be built close by the site of the 

 future substantial erection, so that advantages of 

 pure air, water, &c., may be obtained at once, a 

 vegetable garden formed on the hill top, and so on. 

 The first hut often comes in afterwards as a kitchen. 

 Its construction is primitive, and not above the 



