264 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA 



" progress " of the last ten years. And progress it is, 

 in every proper sense of the word. The Narbada valley 

 is now a part of the great bustling world outside, instead 

 of being a mere isolated oasis in a desert of jungle, thiiLking 

 and caring only about its own petty wants and concerns. 

 The agriculturist, the merchant, and all who " paddle 

 their own canoe " on the great ocean of life, are all the 

 better for it. Their gains have grown in more than 

 proportion to their outgoings. Only such wretches as 

 sail in "foreign bottoms" have to regret the change; 

 their fixed incomes have not grown with the growth of 

 their expenses. The poor clerk, who could barely in 

 the old times keep body and soul together on his pittance 

 of ten rupees a month, gets no more now that his expenses 

 are doubled. Government schools have flooded his 

 market with competitors, who prevent his wages from 

 rising by their importunity for office ; and the Government, 

 not having yet discovered the way to raise its own income, 

 when appealed to for more, buttons up its pockets, and 

 points to the crowds ready and willing to serve for less. 

 The poor clerk has his remedy; he can pick and steal 

 enough to make up the deficiency ; and he does so. But 

 the subaltern of infantry, or the young civilian, being 

 incommoded with the troublesome commodity called 

 honour, have no such resource ; and so they have nothing 

 for it but to knock off their Arab, and other little luxuries, 

 and fag away through an ill-concealed period of indigence 

 to higher grades and better pay. 



All this civilisation has of course greatly deteriorated 

 the place as a residence for him whose pleasures lie with 

 the jungle and its wild inhabitants. In the old times, 

 Jubbulpur was almost the perfection of a sportsman's 

 head-quarters. It lay nearly at the head of the last of 

 the great basins of the Narbada valley, which have been 

 reclaimed by population and agriculture. These basins 

 are a characteristic of the valley, and within the limits 

 of our province are four in number; great circular plains 

 surrounded by steep hiUs, filled with deep alluvial soil, 

 through which the river moves slowly in long silent reaches, 

 with here and there a gentle stream. Between them 



