xl INTRODUCTION". 



Central India inchides Nagpore, nortli of tlie Godavery, 

 the valley of the Nerbudda, with Saugor and Mhow ; Bundel- 

 cund, and the countries extending on the East towards 

 Cnttack and ]\Iidnapore. In Southern India I distinguish 

 Malabar, including Wynaad, Coorg, the whole extent of 

 the AVestern Ghats, and the slopes of the Neilgherries ; 

 the Carnatic; the Nortiiern Circars; and the Table land of 

 Mysore, Bellary, and H3^derabad, as far as the Godaver}^ 



Malabar is, throughout, a forest country ; the Northern 

 Circars and the Eastern part of Central India, and Eastern 

 Bengal, are well wooded or jungly ; and the Himalayas 

 are clad with thick and lofty forest. The Carnatic and 

 still more the Table land, the Western portion of Central 

 India, Western Bengal, the X. W. Provinces, Punjab, 

 and Sindh, are all more or less bare and denuded of 

 forest ; though patches of jungle occasionally occur, and 

 the hilly parts are more or less wooded. In the Eastern 

 parts of Bengal, tracts of gigantic grass jungle exist, 

 unknown elsewhere, except, partially, on the banks of a 

 few rivers. 



Malabar, the Eastern Himalavas, Eastern Benj^al. and 

 the neighbouring districts of Central India, are respective^, 

 and in the order here mentioned, the districts in wliich 

 most rain falls ; the Punjab and Sindh and parts of the 

 Carnatic, and of the Table land, the driest provinces. 

 The Punjab and N. W. Provinces are at once the hottest, 

 and the coldest, climates in India. Southern India, from 

 its vicinity to the Equator, is more uniformly warm than 

 Central and Northern India, but, the sea breeze, extend- 

 ing its influence over the narrow continent, moderates the 

 heat, and the excessive summer temperature of Northern 

 and Central India is unknown in the South. Bengal, again, 

 though nearly equally cold in winter with Central India, 



