kill and eat the hogs and deer, but dare not kill or wound the wild cattle or neelgae.  The wild cattle are said to be from a stock which strayed or were let loose in this jungle some centuries ago.  They are described as fat, while the crops are on the ground, and well formed—­some black, some red, some white, and some mixed—­ and to be as wild and active as the deer of the same jungle.  They are sometimes caught by being driven into the Saee river; but the young ones are said to refuse all food, and die soon, if not released.  Hindoos soon release them, from the religious dread that they may die in confinement.  The old ones sometimes live, and are considered valuable.  They are said to be finer in form than the tame cattle of the country; and from July to March, when grass abounds, and the country around is covered successively with autumn and spring crops, more fat and sleek.

The soil is good and strong, and the jungle which covers it very thick.  It is preserved by a family of Kumpureea Rajpoots, whose whole possessions, in 1814, consisted of nine villages.  By degrees they have driven out or murdered all the other proprietors, and they now hold no less than one hundred and fifty, for which they pay little or no revenue to Government.  The rents are employed in keeping up large bands of armed followers and building strongholds, from which they infest the surrounding country.  The family has become divided into five branches, each branch having a fort or stronghold in the Nyn jungle, and becoming by degrees subdivided into smaller branches, who will thrive and become formidable in proportion as the Government becomes weak.  Each branch acts independently in its depredations and usurpations from weaker neighbours but all unite when attacked or threatened by the Government.

Rajah Dursun Sing held the district of Salone from 1827 to 1836, and during this time he made several successful attacks upon the Kumpureea Rajpoots of the Nyn jungle; and during his occasional temporary residence he had a great deal of the jungle around his force cut down, but he made no permanent arrangement for subduing them.  In 1837, the government of this district was transferred to Kondon Lal Partak, who established a garrison in the centre of the jungle, had much of it cut down, and kept the Kumpureea barons effectually in check.  He died in 1838, and Rajahs Dursun Sing and Buktawar Sing again got the government, and continued the partaks system for the next five years, up to 1843.  They lost the government for 1844 and 1845, but their successors followed the same system, to keep the Kumpureeas in order.  Bukhtawar Sing got the government again for 1846 and 1847, and persevered in this system; but in 1848 the government was made over to Hamid Allee, a weak and inexperienced man.  His deputy, Nourouz Allee, withdrew the garrison, and left the jungle to the Kumpureeas, who, in return, assigned to him three or four of their villages, rent free, in perpetuity, which