66 



The Neilghemj Mountains. [No. 34, 



which even a few months' residence on them produces on the enfee- 

 bled constitutions of officers, must in an equal degree be exerted on 

 the condition of the private soldiers who may be sent to them ; and 

 that not only physically, but morally ; since the constant out of doors 

 employment and recreation which they would be enabled, during the 

 greater portion of the year, to find and enjoy, would remove them 

 from the influence of that most demoralizing of all agencies, the dull, 

 monotonous irksomeness of the almost constant confinement to bar- 

 racks, and of the life of utter idleness which they are compelled to in 

 the plains. To the unfortunate wives and children of the European 

 soldiery the effects of this wise measure will produce incalculable be- 

 nefit, for it needs only to consult the tables of mortality in the re- 

 cords of almost any European regiment serving in the plains, to 

 perceive, that upon them, and the latter especially, the hardships and 

 sufferings of a barrack life there fall with aggravated cruelty. Under 

 the discipline of a good school, and with constant employment found 

 for them, relieved by the healthful exercise which will always be 

 within their reach, it is not too much to say, that hundreds of lives 

 may be annually saved, many too, possibly to be devoted to the ser- 

 vice of the state, in the persons of useful and well educated servants. 

 I think that on the first arrival of fresh troops on the Hills, much 

 care and attention will be necessary to adapt the habits of the men to 

 the entirely new climate (comparatively speaking) in which they will 

 find themselves, avoiding very early and very late parades, and mak- 

 ing all guards and sentries put on great-coats before sunset, and wear 

 them till after sunrise, and generally keeping the men out of the in- 

 fluence of the night air as much as possible. The site which I have 

 had occasion to recommend for the new cantonment, in the valley of 

 Jakatulla, is situated at an elevation of 6,100 feet above the sea, and 

 enjoys a most temperate and agreeable climate ; but the rapid change 

 of temperature which follows the withdrawal of the sun's rays there 

 as in all other parts of the Hills, demands care and precaution, espe- 

 cially in the case of men whose constitutions, and liver especially, 

 have become injured by long residence in the low country. 



Men suflTering from dysentery will, with care, do well in Jakatulla, 

 at all events in the dry weather, if too much exposure to the sun and 

 to the dry easterly winds is avoided. Indeed there appear to be few 

 diseases contracted in the plains which are not, unless too far advan- 

 ced, speedily cured here — speaking of the Hills generally — with the 

 exception of liver complaint, which if abscess has already formed, usu- 



