99 



barley, and abundance of inferior grain; while cotton, indigo, and 

 tobacco, amply repay the litlle trouble they occasion the farmer, 

 by a ready sale at foreign markets. 



Nature seems also to be peculiarly favourable to the animal 

 tribes in Guzerat: the oxen are esteemed the finest in India; they 

 are perfectly white, with black horns, a skin delicately soft, and 

 eyes rivalling those of the antelope in brilliant lustre. The oxen 

 reared in the northern part of the province are noble animals, 

 superior in strength, size, and docility; some of them travel with a 

 hackery from thirty to forty miles a day, and are yoked to the car- 

 riages of the wealthy Hindoos in distant parts of India. I had a 

 very fine pair of these white oxen, in spirit, size, and beauty, equal 

 to most I ever saw in Guzerat; and in sweetness of temper and 

 gentleness of manners nearly approaching the elephant formerly 

 described in Ragobah/s campaign. "With these animals I travelled 

 many thousand miles in the delightful province of Guzerat. The 

 Ayeen Akbery mentions some of these oxen valued at one hundred 

 gald mohurs the pair, a sum nearly equal to two hundred pounds 

 sterling; the common price at that period was from ten to twenty 

 mohurs a pair ; while at the same time the usual price of a good 

 cow, yielding daily twenty quarts of milk, was only ten rupees, or 

 twenty-five shillings, in the beast-market at Delhi. A smaller breed 

 of these animals is employed in the province in agriculture, and 

 the transportation of 'merchandize. There is also a variety of 

 inferior in size, strength, and value, reared in different parts of 

 Guzerat for the same purposes; these are of all colours, and with 

 the usual characteristics of the species in other parts of Hin- 

 dostan. 



