MAMMAL SURVEY OF INDIA. 467 



and East Africa. There lias indeed, from the earliest times, been 

 direct and almost continual ocean traflfic I-etween Egypt, Arabia and 

 East Africa on the one hand and the Province of Gujarat on the 

 other, and, both in its population and in its customs, Ivathiawar 

 shows very definite traces of Egyptian, African and Arabian 

 influence. 



But the sea-coast was by no means the o\\\j point of entry into 

 India from the outer world. Gujarat was presumably from very 

 early times famous for its fertility, and, in addition to those who 

 emigrated by sea from Arabia or Persia, the Province of Kathiawar 

 has suffered (or benefited) by numerous and successive incursions 

 overland through the deserts of Sind and Cutch. Sindies, Waghirs, 

 Mianas are, so to speak, the froth on the seashore, which has been 

 left after the advance of a wave. By no means numerous, these 

 have nevertheless set their mark hj their predatory habits upon 

 the whole historjr of the Province. On the other hand, the tribes 

 who have given their name to the Province and who migrated from 

 Sind and have permanently settled there, namely, the two tribes of 

 Kathis, were of a far higher grade in civilization than those just 

 mentioned. How far they ever complete!}^ dominated the Province 

 may be doubtful. But they certainly were the people who ruled a 

 considerable part of the Peninsula for a very considerable period of 

 its history. Then from Cutch, in the persons of the Jadejas, and 

 from Rajputana in the north, in the Jhalas and Ghoils, came 

 incursions of various Rajput clans which carved out kingdoms for 

 themselves wherever they found themselves strong enough to 

 establish any form of permanent rule. 



Lastly the whole of the political situation in the Province was 

 subverted by the incursion, again from the same directions, of con- 

 quering Mahomedans. This does not purport to be even a bare 

 summary of the political historjr of the Province, but enough has been 

 said to show that the Peninsula of Kathiawar presents within a very 

 small geographical limit a greater varietj^ of race, creed and place of 

 origin of its population than almost any other area of similar extent 

 on the surface of Asia. 



It remains to give some description of the climatic conditions of 

 the Province, and these are, considering its area, unusually varied. 

 As has already been said, Kathiawar is approximately the northern 

 limit of the area of direct influence of the south-west monsoon, and 

 this of course to a great extent determines its climate so far as rain- 

 fall is concerned. But even in respect of that feature the Province 

 is the victim of large local variations. The hilly tracts to the south, 

 which are well covered with jungle, have the benefit of a fairly regu- 

 lar rainfall, and, even in jrears, such as 1899 and 1910, the Gir forest 

 and the Girnar Mountain — in fact, most of the Sorath Prant — 

 I'eceived a modicum of rain, and in 1911, in particular, the rainfall 

 6 



