254 A Sportswoman in India 



a river bank. In the Bombay Presidency the Ghats 

 rise in magnificent precipices and headlands almost 

 out of the ocean, and truly look like " colossal landing- 

 stairs " from the sea. The Eastern and Western Ghats 

 meet at an angle near Cape Comorin at the southern 

 extremity of India, and so complete the three sides of 

 the table-land. 



I think the Deccan fulfils more than the Punjab 

 does the rooted conception of " the land of Ind," 

 as fostered by pictures of the East from one's child- 

 hood, and as carried out with him from home by 

 every globe-trotter. The black soil of the Deccan, 

 proverbial for its fertility, grows every kind of fruit- 

 bearing palm, bears rich successions of crops and 

 heavy rice harvests that is, unless the monsoons fail. 

 Vast masses of forests, ridges, and peaks constitute the 

 highlands of Southern India, broken by cultivated 

 valleys and high-lying plains. Parts of the Deccan are 

 covered with magnificent vegetation ; in old days it 

 was buried under forests ; and even now ebony, teak, 

 and other great trees still abound. But tillage has 

 driven the jungle back to the hilly recesses ; wheat, 

 millet, tobacco, cotton, sugar-cane, and pulse fields 

 spread over the country. 



The people store the monsoon rains in wells, tanks, 

 and artificial lakes, and flood their crops at will. Their 

 food consists chiefly of small grains and millets ; and 

 if the rains fail, thousands die of famine. As from 

 the railway the traveller sees the flat stretch of rice 

 fields, fringed round with evergreen masses of bamboo 



