8
quarter above the Bijna bridges They did not necessarily mix with the
Purdessee gangs."
26. "The part of the bank of the Mooteyah nullah on which the 411
Purdessee coolies were hutted is distant about 400 yards from the road; it is-
formed of a ridge of basalt covered with a thin layer of decomposed trap, the
surface being strewn with, pieces of greenstone and quartz. This rocky ridge rises
10 or 15 feet above the plain, it crops up rather abruptly, and is the most elevated
site in: the valley, bordering the ridge on its side towards the load. The soil, com-
posed of blacksoil overlying clay, is deep and cultivated, but where it is continuous
with the ridge and forms the bank of the nullah, the clay contains a larger pro-
portion of kunkur and, is dry and uncultivated, and only covered, with the
coarse gras that forms the chief vegetation, of the dry wastes of this tract of
country. Between.the ridge and the stream is a sheet of rock 60 yards wide, formed
of hard basalt containing much crystalline quartz. It was in this rock that the
coolies were employed quarrying metal. The opposite bank is formed of clay
rising abruptly about 20 feet from the stream. The site is totally without shade,
there not being a tree of any kind anywhere near."
27. "Both above and below, the sheet of basalt there were pools of water
from 2 to 4 feet deep The stream between running close under the clay bank
was very small, the upper pool had. been slightly deepened by a small dam
made by the coolies. These pools formed the sole water-supply of the gangs.
The mates whom I examined on the spot acknowledged that the bed of the river
was much defilal, the coolies resorting to it, or to the waste ground on the-
bank, for the purposes of nature, and washing their, bodies in the stream; they also
habitually bathed in the same pools from, which they drew their drinking water."
Besides these sources of defilement, Mr. O'Donnell in his report states ; "that
Koonie Darogah, when returning on the evening of the 17th from going to the
burial of the coolies, crossed the Mooteyah and observed the water in one of the
pools of a reddish, tinge; and a few small dead, fish were floating in it and others
were lying rotting on the margin. On enquiry from the coolies he learnt that three
or four days previously some fishermen were discovered catching fish in this pool
with a net, and the coolies forced them away, not wishing the water to be puddled.
On the 14th, or thereabouts, it appears the fishermen returned during the night
and threw into the pool a quantity of bark of the Tilinsa, a jungle tree which had
the effect of destroying the fish in a few hours and discolouring the water. All
the larger fish the fishermen subsequently took away, leaving the smaller ones as
Koonie found them. It is possible the coolies may have drank of the contami-
nated water of this pool. I could not with certainty ascertain this."
On the site above described the gangs of coolies were thus distributed.
Bindrabun's gang of 200 with two smaller gangs of 30 and 50 occupied the rocky
ridge. Abgang of, 42 under mate Bhugwan was hutted on the cultivated black.
soil within a few feet of the ridge; and two other gangs of 65 and 24 under mates
Ruthnee and Bola were pitched on the waste ground nearer the bank of the
stream. These gangs were the nearest to the road. The gangs on the ridge
would probably draw water from the pool below the sheet of basalt, the gangs on
the lower ground from the upper pool.
28. The outbreak of cholera is thus described by Mr. O'Donnell :—
" On the 16th April the first case of cholera occurred. It was that oí a
woman of Bhugwan's gang, aged about 20; who, while taking the mid-day rest of
two hours from 12 to 2, was struck down by the disease about 1 o'clock. Her
husband was with her. She was a remarkably strong and healthy youno woman.
" The second case was that of a strong young man, aged about 25; he was
seized about midnight of the 16th and was dead before morning dawnad. During