62
lower one of the lake, round which the town is built, is faced with stone masonry,
and provided with numerous ghats. At some of these the people are not allowed
to bathe and wash clothes, but at the principal ghat vast numbers, nearly the
whole population in fact, bathe and wash their clothes, and at the same time draw
water for drinking.
217. In the cantonment of Saugor there were only S deaths; the population
is 10,000. It is separated from the town by a very short interval, and the old
Sudeler bazaar was scarcely less crowded than the town. The condition in
which they chiefly differ is the water-supply.—the cantonment being entirely
dependent upon wells; but there is also a considerable difference in the character
of the two sites, for while the town is built on hard, rock, the cantonment lies on
blacksoil, overlying basalt.
218. In the present year cholera broke out in Saugor in May, and the
mortality, both in the town and in the cantonment, has been greater than in the
previous year; bat there has been a like disproportion between the mortality in the
town and among the native population in the cantonment,—between May and Sep-
tember, 449 deaths occurred in the former, and 109 in the latter. It is, moreover, re-
nuu-kable that the greatest mortality in the cantonment occurred in the hot weather,
while in the town it reached its maximum after continued heavy rain ; thus for the
week ending the 5th June the number of deaths in the town amounted to 20, in the
cantoment to 27 ; for the week ending the 24th July, the deaths in the town were
70. in the cantonment 7. In the hot weather this year the water in the wells in
the cantonment t ran very low, and there was great scarcity.
219. In 1868 the epidemic did not spread in the Saugor district; only three
villages,—two in the Saugor and one in the Rholee sub-division,— being visited,
and these very slightly. This year, however, as will be see by the appended
Statement, the district has suffered most severely.
220. In the Nagpore district cholera first appeared among the labourer
employed on the Northern road in the end of May ; the epidemic, however,
spread but little, 40 villages only in the whole district were visited; and of these,
31 were on the northern and north-eastern Police circles of Ramtek and Mow-
dah. In former years, however, the district suffered severely. In 1865 the
epidemic was diffused over the district by the pilgrims returning from the Maha-
deo fair; and with reference to this epidemic, Mr. Malcolm Low, who was then
Deputy Commissioner, reports as follows :—" In a general way it may bo said
that cholera appeared first at Saonair, Khapa, Kailva, Sawargaon, and Mowar,
towns lying to the north of the district, and nearest Mahadeo ; and next visited
Bhewapore, Khoadaleo, and Ramtek, places situated far distant from each
other; last of all it broke out in Nagpore, Kamptee, and Oomrair. That the
out-break in all these towns was immediately preceded by the advent of pilgrims
from Mahadco, I am not prepared to assert, but i have no hesitation in saying so
as regards Saonair and the towns first attacked. In the case of Bhewapore and
Oimrair it is said that the disease was communicated by people comino from
the south, but this is doubtful."
"The disease exhibited its usual caprice in regard to places attacked. I.
was about myself a great deal in the cholera season, and nothing could be more
extraordinary than the manner in which particular places seemed to be
pitched upon for attack. While it was raging in Mowar and Nurkhair, Bailona
had hardly a case ; while it was at its height, at Dhapawarra (and the people
were so panic-stricken that I could hardly get the Local Committee to show me
the town), Kulmeishwur, four miles off, had enjoyed perfect immunity. Nor was the
advent of pilgrims always followed by the disease; there were "many villages,
some of whose inhabitants had returned from Mahadeo, that were not attacked
at all.