BOMBAY 303 
means to meet the expansion of this industry in the 
future, for not all Provinces are equally favourably 
situated. The forests as they exist yield a con- 
siderable revenue to the State, and -would afford 
a larger one if sufficient labour were available for 
their working. In this matter a difficulty exists, 
not only in Bombay, but in other parts of India, as 
has already been indicated; for the native of the 
country considers that the word “jungle” is as 
synonymous with “desolation” as “gurkhdli” is 
with “oppression.” To him forest life means a 
resignation of all the social amenities, and withal the 
certainty of the inroads of disease ; so that, while he 
fully recognizes the claim to future reward possessed 
by hermits and other holy men who sit in penance 
or meditation, he himself is not capable of such 
sacrifices, and finds his delight in the busy haunts 
of men, where incessant conversation passes for proof 
of superior intellect. 
The only present remedy for the lack of forest 
labour in Bombay seems to lie in its importation ; 
there are other places in India, not so fertile, where 
the population is in excess of the demands of the 
land, and is therefore willing to make winter visits to 
Burma, or even to spend years in the West Indies. 
And it might be that persuasive offers of land and 
of other initial help would attract visitors, and even 
tempt them to remain, and in time to replace the 
worn-out inhabitants of the Kanara forests, over 
whom the jungle is asserting its supremacy. All 
forest folk eat heartily, take opium or alcohol, and 
are well sheltered against the climate ; and this they 
contrive, not exclusively by their own efforts in 
