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    INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS.

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    India And Indian Progress.

    INDIA AND INDIAN PROGRESS .

    Untitled Article

    THE LASTNEW WOELD . In tliis day , -when all fields of excitement are supnosed to be exhausted , and when a new book of travels is supposed to be impossible , and professed books of travels are looked upon as specimens of book-making , the Travellers' Club is in danger of losing its qualification , and the adventurous of losing all chance of the novel or unattempted . Europe is undreamt of , its northern st reams are fished , and the green parasol marks even Constantinople as familiar . Australia is not tempting , and in . America buffalo hunting is not attended -with

    distinction . Africa we pass over because Gordon Cumming has tarnished the glories of the chase for all followers , even could they kill more lions , . and Livingstone has made a path through Mid Africa , which he may repeat , Tor he lias a title to it , but which any one who imitated must do in silence , for he can no longer l > oast of it . No one will seek the thousand islands to found a new rajahskip like Brooke , and the opening of Japan will not afford six months' food , of table-talk for hall" a dozen men . Who knows ? perhaps Albert

    Sinitli is now promenading through the streets of Jeddo instead of returning from his ovation at Hong-Kong ! We have discovered so much , that in tliis age of discovery we feel we can discover nothing , and in an epoch as fruitful in heroes and heroism as the Homeric age , and that of the Germanic invasion of Rome , or the era of Columbus , or the time of Elizabeth , we begin to despair of ¦ finding new food for adventure , and yet there is almost a world open for the exertion of the active in the vast countries of our Indian dependencies in the Himalayas and the reg ions of Central Asia to

    which they give access . While the rental of some small moor or contracted forest in Scotland is made a contest between our magnates , there are Indian sportsmen who are following far nobler game than grouse and red'dee . r in t lie jungles and over the mountains , with a province for hunting ground . There the sportsman , like Hercules and the demigods of old , in pursuing his own pleasure , is hailed by the miserable mountaineers as a benefactor , and has the pride and satisfaction of becoming the pioneer of civilisation . So vast , however , are the countries of the Terai and the mountainsand so small is our population , that

    , as yet they can only be hunted over . Such is the progress of settlement in many of our countries . In the West the trapper follows the beaver and the fur beast , thq trader comes in his wake , and a fixed post becomes the cradle of a new city which is to transform the wilderness into regions of fertility , lii South Africa , the lion hunter moves ahead , seeking for skins , feathers , and ivory , clearing tho country of lions and beasts ravening for flesh , and of the elephant and baboon , fatal foes to the vegetable crops . The trader is his attendant ; and then into tho cleared country come the herds of oxen

    and sheep , no longer fearful of the lion , the leopard , and the hyena . The farmer succeeds the herdsman , and the steps of civilisation are made good . In India , the lovo of pleasure in some of ouv oountrymen , and the pursuit of health in others , lend them to devote weeks , and somptiinos months , to hunting parties in tho wasto districts , sometimes an EngUanman with native attendants , sometimes two Englishmen or more together . There are 3 casoi \ 9 when tho jungle patohoa can be searched far tigers and leopards , which are tho dread of the cowering black , and which drive him from his field , liis pastures , or his homo . Then tho Englishman

    ami his hunting party are welcomed , and for ft season the country is cleared of its enemies . Iniecd , there is a groat part of the country whioh is ttily cleared of the wild boosts and kept open for occupation by tho skill and courage of the English spoilsmen . How beasts still contend with men for Luc possession of the earth , as they did in the earliest ages of its history , is a matter unfamiliar to as , but not unknown in tho East and the West . riiorc havo been parts of Europe whoro in famiuo and pestilence tho wolves and the bears havo driven in tho frontiers of occupation , dovastatod villages , and driven forth tho surviving inhabitants ; so in South America the Indian oontonds with the

    pearancelike the American bison , but larger . The bull comes down to the nullahs of Shelshel and Keo , which alone are , accessible to English sportsmen , and as these nullahs have no thoroughfare and are not entered by human beings for years at a time , the bunchowr bulls roam in solitary grandeur from the beginning of winter to the end of July , when they go back to visit their families on the Gartok hills .

    When our traveller entered theSalkh Nullah , on the 5 th of July of this year , it had not been visited for three years , and he came upon six bulls together , but the wind and scent being unfavourable they were alarmed and got off , and though he hunted for a fortnight in the neighbourhood he never saw them again . On the same afternoon he saw another bull , but it was not till the 27 th July that in the Keo Nullah he came across a bull again , which proved to be this very bull , and wind and ground being favourable he was killed , and proved" to be nine feet around the chest , with horns sixteen inches in diameter at the base , and eleven inches half-way

    up . He proved good meat . The condition of the country is , however , described with more minuteness than the bull-hunt . Hundes and the neighbouring districts are almost uninhabited , being thinly peopled by Hunnias , who live in temporary or movable villages , and carry on trade between Thibet and the plains . The town of Daba has only one pucka-house , and the capital of Gartok has only two . In Hundes there is no town , and the district is dependent on Gartok . The trade over the elevated passes , one of which is the difficult and dangerous pass of Chor Hoti , TS , 300 feet

    high , and another the Drunjun , is carried on by means of the yak , or tame bunchowr , the Joobul , a cross breed between the yak and the hill cattle , goats and sheep . The yak will cany 150 to 200 lbs ., the joobnl 100 to 150 lbs ., the sheep and goat about ten or fifteen pounds weight . The reason sheep and goats are so much employed is that sheep alone go from the higher to the lower country without dying . It is " supposed some fifteen or twenty thousand of these animals yearly cross this tract . The traders take flower , rice ,-sugar , and cotton into Thibet , and brinff back borax , salt , sheep ' s

    wool , and goats' hair . To the state of the trade considerable attention was paid by the writer , and he is clearly of opinion that with the improvement of the road along the Gong river , it could be greatly improved . The district officer is called a Zumpun , and . he is dependent on the Garkoon of Gartok . The Zaiupuu has a dozen police and an unpaid writer called a vizier , and he has almost absolute power over the people . The Garkoon has about a hundred police , or raeamuffins , armed with bad

    matchlocks and two or three swords apiece . These men are commanded by a captain of police . The superior of the Garkoon of Gartok is the Shibchid of the province of Bood , a month ' s march from Gartok . The country is open to Ghoorkns , Hindostauocs , Sikhs , and all people , except the English ; bat though ' the . Hundes are friendly towards us , the authorities forbid our access , ana the late Zumpun , for allowing two Englishmen to reach the Munsortvwur Lake , was dismissed and fined 20 / . On reach ins : Hoti , the traveller found an outpost

    of foui- Hunnias , without weapons ot any kind , who , hearing of an Englishman entering Bhote , had come to watch his movements . They wanted him to go back at once , but he insisted on seeing 1 ho Zumpun , and sent forward a coolie as an ambassador , with a lottcr and a Victoria plaid tartau shawl , requesting nn interview , and promising a stcrcoscopo and a number of daguerreotype slides , which he had brought on purpose , and tho wonders of which were duly appreciated iu tho enmp . Thq the wife

    hy brid Spaniard , and narrows his bounds in the plains , and the wild beast issuing from his lair in the mountains or the forests , or the snake lurking in the latter , restrains the red man . So it is in India , where still within our own territory , as in one of the passes of the D ehrah Dhoou ; for instance , a single tiger , known for its ferocity , or a savage elephant bestained with human blood , will forbid traffic , and render the passage dangerous even for Europeans , as their bearers and servants will desert them on the alarm of the dreaded monster . There the Nemean lion has his parallel in some

    monarch of the waste , and there , too , the successful combatant boasts of his spoils , and is hailed with the triumphant applause of the rescued people . So long as the jungle remains undisturbed and gives cover , and the mountain valleys and passes are unoccupied by the English , w'ild beasts will be the scourge of the plains of India , an object of solicitude to collectors , and not unworthy of the attention of the Supreme Government . It is , however , in the Himalayas that the hunter , who can get leave of absence and has strength to enjoy it has the height of happiness , and yet , in small

    strangely enough , his life must be spent tents in the open air . The practice of encamping on marches , journeys , and circuits , nevertheless , reconciles our countrymen , who never slept sound under a roof at home , to this hardihood . On such occasions they pursue large game over districts as large as a Scotch shire or the whole Northern Highlands , and through miles of glens , cut out by the watercourse of a mighty river . Above them rise the majestic peaks of the Himalayas , the monarchs of the mountain world , crowned with unfading snow , and throned On everlasting glaciers . The allaround them of lower pressure , dry and fresh , gives them buoyancy of feeling , and adds to the earnest

    enjoyment of a life of freedom and activity the paradise of the lover of vigorous enjoyment , as the indolence and luxuriance of the warmer valleys is of the devotee of sweet nothing-doing . There are many of our officials and captains whose lives would bo spent in these mountain-campaigns did the regulations of the service allow , but they have to content themselves with the occasional enjoyment of the luxury of the chase on a scale which an English duke or a European king does not attain with all his fortune , and which costs our countrymen scarcely the income of a well-paid mechanic .

    No generalisations point so forcibly as particular instances , and we bring our general observations to a conclusion that we may bring forward a not uncommon example in the hunting excursion of Keith Leslie in Hundes . which he , with more industry than some of his brother sportsmen , hns portrayed at length in the Friend of India , though his narration partakes more of the recital of an enlightened traveller than the loose observations of a common sportsman . The country to which he directed his steps lies above Kurnaon and Gurhwal , on a portion of the lino of watershed of the Himalayas , which is at present a physical ami political impediment to our free intercourse with the great Thibetan marts of Gartok and Daba . Into this region of Hundes the adventurer determined to penetrate , and ho started from Almora with two servants , and about

    twenty coolies , the latter of whom carried his equipment , whioh included two small tents , portable bedstoad and bedding , cotton and woollen clothing , a hunting-knife , a spring balance , ten , sugar , and prcsorvedmoats , four saucepans , two kettles , two gridirons , two sets of plates , cups , knives , forks , and spoons , a riile and gun , one bag of largo shot , live hundred bullots , six ilaska of powder , caps , and wads . Huudcs is above tho range of tree vegetation ,

    except just at Gong , whero birch-troes and a land of cypress are plentiful , but it ia covered with good grass , vetch , lupins , wild onions , looks , and many flourishing plants . Tho herbage feeds of large game , tho bumil or snow sheep , tho nyau or avis ( tmmon , tho kyang or wild horse , and the bunchowr or wild , yak . Tho only boast , of prey is a kind of wolf . It was bunchowr more particularly that tho sportsman sought ; , as it was said that only four Ruglislnncu . had up to that tiino succeeded in killing tho buuehowr . Tho writer says that tho bunohowr is a noble-looking animal , something in

    apainbassadov was received by Zumpun ' s , who took tho shawl and promised nn iiilomew with her husband on his return . This , took p aoo , and ho was fouud to bo more like a Chinaman than a Huunia , dressed in a sort of yellow ilounoed sUfcgown , with a mandarin hut and |> lwm glass buttons . Ho wished tho Englishman to leave Hundes at once , which tho luflor declined ; but though he could havo resisted tho . Zumpun s iorcc , ho contented himself wilh remurmg tho right of shooting about the villages without _ ontorang thorn . The stereoscope was greatly admired , but tho ISnpluli

    Untitled Article

    Tsfn 4 , 55 . -December 11 , 1858 . 1 T H E X E A P E B , 1359

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Dec. 11, 1858, page 1359, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2272/page/23/