80 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
down; and, lastly; those of the Tarai, where the 
soil is more or less water-logged. 
The forests of the Kumaon district towards the 
east had in those days an evil name for malaria and 
for cholera, and not without cause. Such inhabitants 
as there were were chiefly migratory from the hills, 
where they returned in spring; they consisted of 
graziers from Kali Kumaon and shepherds from 
Thibet, men who were prepared to resist any forest 
regulations that were deemed to restrict their trade, 
and who were on the whole uninteresting and. 
unfriendly. There was but one house, that at 
Chorgalia, or Thieves’ Gully, where the Nandhaur 
River debouched into the plains; there were no 
roads save a particularly inferior track leading from 
Haldwani to Barmdeo, from the one mart of Thibetans 
and hillmen to another on the banks of the Sarda 
River. Footpaths there were on which a good hill- 
pony might climb, but there were no cleared camping- 
grounds in a country of dense forest, and no wells in 
a land of impure water. Matters have been much 
improved since then; there are roads and houses, 
wells and bridges, for the lesson has been learnt 
that all these are necessary either to exploit the 
forest or to maintain in health those on whom this 
duty is imposed. The loss of life in the early days 
of forest conservancy in India must have been great, 
and the lists of wounded, men with constitutions 
ruined by repeated attacks of malaria, must have 
been lengthy; and thus the large sums that have 
been, and are being, spent in the protection of 
the staff have been easily recouped by its greater 
efficiency. 
