satisfied till they came under
British rule, and with which they are still satisfied when left to
themselves. I have not had much experience of the by-paths of the
country, but quite enough to have made me thankful for the new order of
things. Very recently a road for carts and conveyances has been made
from the plains to Nynee Tal, Ranee Khet, and Almora; but the route is
so circuitous that the roads hitherto traversed will continue the chief
means of communication.

No sooner was the British rule established than the effect was seen in
the increase of cultivation. Mr. Traill, the first Commissioner, states
that from the time of the occupation, 1816 to 1822-23, the date of his
retirement, cultivation had increased fully one-third, and since that
time there has been a steady advance. The population has more than
doubled, for we are told that in 1823 there were 27 inhabitants to the
square mile, while in 1872 there were 65. At the same time there were
797 to the square mile in the Benares district, and there was no
district in the North-West Provinces where the population was under 185,
while the average was 378. An immense disparity must continue between
countries with such different capabilities, but the progress made in
Kumaon under British rule is proportionably as great as that made in the
most favoured parts of India.

Wealth has been brought into the country as well as drawn out of it. I
have already referred to tea-planting as a new department of
agricultural industry. Many thousands have been spent on
tea-gardens--much more, I suspect, than has yet been got out of them. A
tea-planter once pointed to a cluster of well-built villages, and said,
"These houses have all been built within the last few years by the
proceeds of wages made in the tea-garden under my charge." Then the
great influx of European travellers and residents has done not a little
to enrich the people in various ways, though at times the labour thus
required has been very grudgingly given, as it has withdrawn them from
their homes when their own work was urgent.

Of late years a new source of income has been opened up to the people by
the enterprise of Sir Henry Ramsay, who has been for many years the
Commissioner of the Province, and has done more for it than any of his
predecessors. The hill people of some districts have been for ages in
the habit of moving down _en masse_ with their cattle at the beginning
of the cold weather for grazing, a