District, but I am assured by Mr. Bruce Foote that there are, in all directions, vestiges of the antique life of the inhabitants of South India, ready to reward the intelligent explorer.
Why should not some of you take a part in this work?
It might, amongst other things, lead you to the study of geology. True it is that a portion, though only a portion, of our districts has been surveyed by the geological experts of the Government of India, but there is room for a whole army of workers to follow in their track, and to glean much that is valuable, as well scientifically, as economically.
Then there is mineralogy. We know as yet next-to-nothing of the mineral resources of South India. Witness the crazy rush there was a few years ago into gold- mining speculations. Witness the very likely just as foolish sacrifice of properties, which had been acquired at absurd prices.
You ought to know all about the mineral contents of your soil, and who is to find this out except yourselves? All told, there may be 35,000* persons in this Presidency of all degrees, more or less of English birth, but the population of the Presidency is about 31,000,000.
We can do nothing but show you the way to begin. With a view to do this, the Government has just imported a mineralogical surveyor. We want, however, in order to get the work done properly, not units but legions.
Then the Fauna of the Presidency is still far from fully worked out, even in its higher orders. There are still discoveries to be made, if not among the mammals, certainly amongst the birds, the reptiles, and the fish, while, when you get below these, you pass gradually into less and less known regions. A serious study of the insects of South India would probably result in discoveries of very direct importance to its inhabitants, and the investigation of the humbler oceanic life around our coasts has been hardly commenced. I trust a great impulse to Natural History will be given by the recent importation of Mr. Thurston, Mr. Bourne, and Mr. Henderson. But they and other able Europeans, and scores and scores of educated natives, will have to work for a couple of generations, before the Madras University can be said to have done its duty in investigating its own special zoological province.
There is yet no handbook of the insects of South India, and
- We have four persons speaking our two Kolarian languages, Sowrah and
Gradabha, for every one who speaks English.
