BT \\\ KING; ESQ, 



69 



old and young animals of the family appeared to have ^been 

 romping about on the sand only a short time before we 

 reached the scene of their gambols. The wild pig, bear, 

 muntjack (called the goat-antelope here), and neelgai leave 

 their traces ; and the pretty little dark brown Malabar 

 squirrel is not uncommonly heard screaming among the trees. 

 We saw no traces of bison ; but these animals are said to have 

 - frequented the mountains many years ago. 



The vegetation of these mountains is not generally very 

 luxuriant, though there are little spots here and there in 

 the narrower and deeper valleys where it becomes almost, 

 tropical, and there are evidences of its having been formerly 

 more luxuriant than it is now. The climate of the District 

 is a dry one, and, for some months before the rains set in, 

 fiercely hot ; while the nature and position of the rocks 

 composing the mountains render them incapable of holding 

 water at or near the surface. Consequently, vegetation has not 

 much chance of holding out in any richness ; and the syste 

 matic clearing of the j ungle, without, until lately, any restric- 

 tions,]^ not tended to make thisany better, Throughout the 

 rains, — that is, from May until November— there is a great 

 effort on the part of nature to clothe these hills with rich 

 jungle, and from that time until the beginning of February 

 they are quite green with vegetable life. During this latter 

 period, however, nearly all the water which has fallen 

 is being used up, or absorbed into the vertical fractures 

 and convoluted foldings of the rocks. Then the hot and 

 dry season begins, when the hills become brown and yellow 

 with the dried-up bamboos and great spreads of mountain 

 hay, while mcst of the trees are shedding their leaves pre- 

 vious to their dead life of the hottest months ; whereupon 

 the fires begin and there is soon exposed a great mass of 

 tolerably bare mountain land* 



