nd have returned to their mountain
homes when the hot weather had set in. The country immediately under
the hills is called the Bhabhur, and is quite distinct from the Turai
which lies beyond. This Bhabhur is a formation of sand and shingle
filled with boulders, largely covered over with soil, which produces
abundant herbage in the rainy season, and is thus good grazing ground in
the succeeding months. It has a large extent of forest, composed of
trees of great girth and magnificent height. The innumerable streams
which come down from the hills flow under the Bhabhur, and make their
way into the Turai beyond, where the land becomes water-logged, and the
main product is long, rank grass, growing to the height of ten or twelve
feet. By a system of canals, devised and carried out by Sir Henry
Ramsay, the water as it comes down from the hills is made to irrigate a
large part of the Bhabhur, rendering it fit for agricultural purposes.
The result is that the people now cultivate the land, beside grazing
their cattle over it. They sow toward the end of the rainy season, and
reap at the beginning of the hot weather, when they retreat to the
hills, and are ready for the cultivation of their fields there. This
addition to the arable land has been a great boon to the people. I
cannot say, however, judging by those with whom I have conversed, that
they are satisfied. They grumble at the new tax imposed for the
construction and maintenance of the canals, and also at the tax they
have to pay for their holdings in the hills, though I believe it to be
very light. They would gladly have all the benefits of a firm and
improving government without paying anything for its support.

[Sidenote: WILD BEASTS.]

Notwithstanding the extension of cultivation and the increase of
population in Kumaon, we may travel for many miles over hill and forest
and not see a trace of man's presence. Cover for wild beasts has been
somewhat abridged, but it is still sufficient to shelter them, and to
make it unlikely they can be exterminated. Both in the hills and in the
country beneath, hunters of wild beasts, European and native, still find
abundant employment. Not a year passes without persons, sheep, and
cattle being killed by tigers, leopards, and hyenas. They live so much
in the gorges of the mountains, and in the depths of the forests, ready
to pounce on their prey when opportunity presents itself, that the
destruction caused by them is seen, while they