Abstract
OF the many volumes published about the British possessions in Asia not one of them appears to us to go over the same ground as Mr. Ball's “Jungle Life in India.” For nearly fifteen years the author, as one of the staff of the Geological Survey of India, was engaged in the work of the survey in parts of the Central Provinces and of Western Bengal far out of the ordinary tracks. Fond of sport, an excellent ornithologist, and a good botanist, there was much to engage his attention outside the ordinary routine of his daily duties—duties indeed which by their very nature brought him iato everyday contact with all sorts of natural objects, both great and small. A specialist, it is true, has the proud satisfaction of knowing the subject he works at perhaps better than any one else, but he too often acquires the knowledge by the sacrifice, dismal to contemplate, of his love for almost all other subjects, and he can look for sympathy with his labours to a very select few. Not so with our Indian geologist; his special work is but little touched on in this volume, though a glance at its 702nd page (Appendix G) shows the amount of that work accomplished, in the form of Memoirs, Records, and Reports published from time to time by the Geological Survey of India, to have been both important and great. One great charm of this journal lies in its many touches of nature. One feels as one reads it that for the moment they are with the journalist as he travels through some jungle, wanders along the bed of some mountain torrent, or explores some new coal-field big with promise. As a personal narrative it is full of life, and what it may want in precision is more than made up by the vivid pictures it presents.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Jungle Life in India 2 . Nature 21, 373–376 (1880). https://doi.org/10.1038/021373a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/021373a0