

2. Very few o\ : ■ or writers on India appear 



to have appreciated, or even realized, the great nature 

 the absorbing in1 I wil ii which the 



country once abi m l'.l. !. md which. ( ; . s, parth ti rough their apathy, 

 it has now mostly lost. What the Creator gave in these respects 

 might have been to a ureat extent saved, it ! en have been accom- 

 panied by material as well as spiritual profit.* Now that they are 



and the development of the country from a revenue 

 >oint of view. Not only was the sesthetn % ■ intina but even 



lismai waste m jungle, which is but one way of vpn - >>_ t' . glorious 

 tarmony of forest-covered hills with their wealth of natural animal 

 ,nd plant life— a harmony impossible where man's works are 

 oncerned. Ev< re discov«H 



oo late to save a sufficiency of them for those direct and indirect 

 >enefits u hieh they confer. 



3. The greater part of the Cangetic Plain had long before the 

 dvent of Europeans lost almost all pretence to natural beauty, but 

 ■inch of the Central and Southern tracts still retained some portion 

 i vestige of their primeval loveliness. 



Walter Ha in ilt on. « ho ( I ,S *>) i nriuded S .-, m ba |,„, r. Aiil'uI. a nd many 



•rovince," described the latter as " consist i in- of wild and wooded 

 ountries affording little or no revenue or supplies . . . rugged 



Kln.rd;, (I'nri 



being composed of ruggei 



jungles, and deep 



forests, or valleys, ami pervaded bv a pestilential atmosphere . . • 

 the high lands a i (easts . . . the rivers and 



waters swarm wit] ators(s»c); the plains and 



j nudes with winged vermin." 



5. Even Buchanan-Hamilton, a botanist and zoologist, is so obsessed 

 with the usual o i , m of any part of a district 



lapsing to a state of nature— an attitude ,,,, doubt corresponding 

 with that of the majority of hid h- aded Britons, though the Words- 

 appear more appropriate to a naturalist. He 

 i strong protest against the reckless waste of 



part of Bhagalpur (the Monchvr district, etc.), he sa 

 assigned for the stunted condition of the forests a 



