THE SAL FORESTS 309 



on the surface that they are abundant. Gold is washed 

 out of the sands of more than one of the streams, in small 

 quantities, however, which barely repay the labour, and 

 it is probable that its lodes are buried in the quartz of the 

 primitive rocks deep below the flow of volcanic material 

 that has overlaid them. 



In the matter of climate, hke all uncleared regions in 

 this latitude at so low an elevation, the tract is subject 

 to malarious fever during the months of October to January. 

 But experience shows that this influence lasts only so long 

 as the coimtry continues uncleared. It is probable that 

 the Lower Narbada valley was equally unhealthy at one 

 time, yet it is now as healthy as any part of the country. 

 Several stations in these provinces have been set down in 

 the middle of jungles with as evil a reputation as this, and 

 along with the clearance of the jungle the fever was found 

 to disappear. The Wynaad, Assam, and Cachar are also 

 standing instances of the successful occupation of malari- 

 ous countries by the help of European enterprise. The 

 malaria excepted, the chmate is highly favourable to 

 colonisation, considering the situation of the tract. No 

 region out of the great mountain ranges could probably be 

 pointed to as possessing such advantages of coolness and 

 freshness as are here conferred by the elevated situation, 

 abundance of moisture, and its attendant evergreen verdure. 



As for the obstacles supposed to be presented by the 

 rank vegetation and noxious animals, they are chiefly 

 imaginary. Immense plains he ready for the plough, if 

 merely the coarse natural grasses were cleared away, there 

 being no brushwood or heavy timber to speak of. The 

 luxuriance of these grasses is only evidence of the fatness 

 of the land that lies below ; and a torch apphed in the month 

 of May will, over large tracts, remove all obstacle to the 

 immediate apphcation of the plough. The wild animals, 

 here as elsewhere, would retire before the axe and plough 

 of the settler. Such as are noxious to human life are not 

 really more so here than in many other much more open 

 parts of the country. In the districts of Doni and Betul 

 there is certainly a larger number of tigers in the same 

 area than in Mandla, and there they have not been found 



