o 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