CHAPTER III. 



FROM BOMBAY TO ETAWAH. 



Physical Aspect of the Country. — Scarcity of Animal Life. — A Barren Region. 

 — Major Ross. — A Boat Trip up the Jumna. — A Mile of Bathers. — Dead 

 Hindoo. — Plenty of Birds, but no Gavials. — Return and goto Etawah. — 

 The Dak Bungalow. — Two Specimens the First Day. — My Boat and Crew. 

 — A Day in the Bazaar. — An Instance of Caste. 



The sun was just setting as our long train crossed tlie bridge from 

 Bombay island to the mainland, and began toiling up the Western 

 Ghauts. These are the Andes of India, and extend close along the 

 coast from Cape Comorin to Bombay and vanish in the Central 

 Desert. We crossed that chain during the night, the next day we 

 crej^t over the Satpura Range at a snail's pace, and were then fairly 

 upon the great Indian plateau which extends north to the Rajpoo- 

 tana desert and east to Calcutta. But where are the luxuriant 

 tropical forests, the waving palms, and the crowds of people one 

 naturally expects to see ? Not here, certainly. Where the country 

 is not cut up by ravines, it stretches out on every side, level as a 

 billiard-table, dry, parched, and thirsty-looking, and, except in the 

 vicinity of Kundwah, utterly destitute of any thing like forests or 

 jungle. There the dry, hot plains are covered with a scattering 

 growth of scrubby trees, and it was quite a surprise to learn that 

 this brushy tract is dignified by the title of forest and duly officei'ed 

 by the Government. North of this are the famous tiger districts of 

 Indore, Bhopal, and Gwalior. 



There are no fences, no houses, nor villages worth mentioning, 

 no swamps, lagoons, nor ponds in this region, and the only hving 

 objects are a few herds of buffalo and zebu. Except for the scat- 

 tered fields of young wheat and a few straggling trees, the land- 

 scape is gray and monotonous in the extreme. But it is the dry 

 season now, there are no rains, and we see the country at its worst. 

 With the burst of the southwest monsoon in May, these parched 

 and barren plains will blossom like a garden, and the intense dry 



