A WEEKLY ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 



" To the solid ground 

 « Of Nature trusts the mind which builds for aye. "—Wordsworth. 



THURSDAY, JULY i, 1909. 



THE IMPERIAL GAZETTEER ATLAS OF 

 INDH. 

 The Imperial Gazetteer of India. Vol. xxvi. Atlas. 

 New edition. Pp. vii + 45; 64 plates. (Oxford: 

 Clarendon Press, 1909.) 



THIS atlas, which forms the twenty-sixth volume 

 of the series, 'is practically an epitome of all the 

 information contained in the " Gazetteer," and, as 

 such, it presents to the reader in a concrete form of 

 illustration most of the physiographical conditions of 

 the Indian Empire. The authorities for the informa- 

 tion contained in it are of the very highest, and the 

 publisher is Mr. J. G. Bartholomew, which is in itself 

 a guarantee that the maps are of the very best. 

 Geology, meteorology, ethnology, language distribu- 

 tion, and archa;ology are all included ; there are four 

 special maps illustrating the position of the British 

 frontier at different periods, and a series of admirable 

 city maps which might have been extended with 

 advantage. 



In the first general map which presents itself the 

 singular position of Ceylon as forming no part of the 

 Indian Empire is curiously anomalous; and inasmuch 

 as Ceylon cannot be wholly left out of account (as in 

 the railway maps, for instance), it would, we think, 

 have added to the appearance, if not to the usefulness 

 of the atlas, to have included it generally. With this 

 doubtful exception the general maps are complete, 

 clear, and most instructive. The special maps are also 

 good, although, of course, it would be easy to suggest 

 other and possibly better methods of presenting the 

 physical features of India than those which have been 

 adopted. The one special map which deals with the 

 subject of vegetation is perhaps the most open to criti- 

 cism. Here the classification of area by colour, exhibit- 

 ing the nature of vegetable growth, or the want of it, 

 seems inadequate. There is one green tint in par- 

 ticular, which denotes " grass or sparsely cultivated," 

 which is rather too comprehensive. We find it, for 

 instance, covering wide tracts to the north and south 

 NO. 2070, VOL. 81] 



of the Indravati affluent of the Godavari river in the 

 Central Provinces. Undoubtedly this is a grass 

 country, and it is also sparsely cultivated. The grass 

 in the cold-weather seasons is thick and rank along 

 the low-lying flats, bunched with tangled masses of 

 dew-soaked undergrowth, and almost impassable in 

 the hot weather by reason of the stuffy atmosphere 

 which envelops it; but it is always associated with a 

 low scrub (chiefly of various species of dwarf patm) 

 and sheltered by a more or less scattered tree jungle 

 which occasionally rises to the dignity of ^ forest 

 and is never altogether wanting although it thins out 

 on the higher land. This is, in fact, the nature of the 

 " jungle " which covers half the surface of India, 

 distinct from the official forest areas, which contain 

 timber of commercial value or fringe the foot-hills of 

 the Himalayas. 



Again, we find the same tint of green overlying 

 many hundreds of square miles of the Baluch highlands 

 where never a tree has been seen for a century, and 

 where it would be vain to look for a blade of grass 

 after the close of summer. It is true that in the spring 

 months a green tint does actually steal gradually over 

 the hill-sides, and it fills in the spaces between the 

 wormwood scrub of the flats. Then, indeed, the 

 flowers bloom freely, and for a period Baluchistan is 

 gay. Then, too, the shepherd takes his sheep to the 

 hills, and the landscape becomes dotted with white 

 specks of scattered flocks. There is grass undoubtedly 

 —for a time— and equally true it is that the land is 

 "sparsely cultivated"; but about the season that the 

 Indravati basin is rank with cane-brakes and under- 

 growth and swarming with game, the hills of Baluch- 

 istan take on their normal aspect of dead, dull stony 

 desolation, and the " dasht " becomes grey and in- 

 sipid. So far as vegetable growth is concerned the 

 two countries are in utter contrast, although it is true 

 of both that grass grows in them, and that cultiva- 

 tion is sparse. A very considerable extension of the 

 " steppe-desert " tint is required in Baluchistan (where 

 it is not introduced at all), nor is it quite reasonable to 

 ignore the magnificent cultivation of the valleys of the 

 Hari Rud, near Herat, and of the Helmand ; or to 

 paint the summit of the Sulaiman range with the colour 



B 



