nsidered to be very good, but perhaps those who fish do not know how to
set to work. The natives sometimes bring very large tank fish round for
sale.

"Driving and riding are not very enjoyable, owing to the terribly bad
state of the roads. When the railway to the mines is opened, which it soon
will be, I am happy to say, the roads will be better. At present the heavy
machinery for the mines, boilers, etc.--sometimes taking sixty bullocks
to draw them--cut up the roads dreadfully. These will of course come by
rail directly the line is open for traffic. The supplies, vegetables,
fruit, etc., come from Bangalore three times a week, each mine keeping a
'Supply boy' (servant), who goes in from Kolar Road (our railway station,
seven miles from the mines), and returns the following day. We get mutton
and beef from the local butcher, and also good bread from the bakery on
the field. Our butter comes from Bangalore, and from there we obtain,
peas, potatoes, French beans, tomatoes, cauliflowers, vegetable marrow,
and lettuces, and also fruit, such as apples, peaches, grapes, plantains,
custard apples, melons, and sometimes pine-apples. Servants on the whole
are good. Most of them come from Madras. Wages are much higher on the gold
fields than in Bangalore--head butlers, 16 rupees; ayahs, 12 to 14 rupees;
chokras, 10 to 11 rupees; cooks, 11 to 14 rupees; and gardeners, 10 to 16
rupees a month. Many of them leave domestic service and take work in the
mines, where they get higher wages very often."

As the elevation of Kolar is about 2,700 feet above sea level, the climate
is for many months of the year extremely agreeable, and it would, so far
as my experience goes, be difficult to find a more exhilarating and more
exquisitely-tempered atmosphere than that of Kolar in the month of
January--at least such was my conclusion when I stayed with my friends at
the field last January. Nor did I hear anyone there complain of the
climate, which, from the appearance of my host (who looked as if he had
never left England) and others on the mines, must be a very healthy one,
and in proof of this I may mention that Mr. Plummer, whom I have
previously quoted, told me that the European miners had as good health as
miners have in England. Cholera has on several occasions broken out
amongst the coolies, but this was rather a proof of the want of attention
paid to sanitation and water supply, as none I believe has occurred since
an improved water su