53
supply was scanty. There are also two large tanks to the south of the town ; one
of these had been dry from the commencement of the season, in the other
the water was very low. Both these tanks are above the general level of the
town, and do not receive any of its surface drainage ; when full they probably
tend to keep the sub-soil water near the surface over the area of the town.
187. Cholera first appeared here on the 1st July,—a bazaar day; but as far
as 1 could ascertain, the first person attacked was a Gond, a resident of the place
living on the outskirts. 101 deaths occurred between the 12th July and 10th
August. The disease was confined almost entirely to a portion of the town on
low ground to the north-west, inhabited by Gonds, Aheers, Lodhees, and Koor-
inees, by whom a large number of cattle are kept. The place was very dirty ; 'it
is somewhat separated from the main portion of the town, and a little outsids
of it is a ditch that receives nearly the whole of the surface drainage of the
town. The people of this quarter depend on two wells for water ; the nearest and
most convenient was 21 feet deep, and had 5 feet of water ; this, however, was
slightly brackish, and was used chiefly for watering cattle and washing clothes,
The well chiefly resorted to for drinking water was at a little distance; it was 24
feet in depth, but contained only 1½ foot of water in January. The bazaar and
chief portion of the town appears to have been free from cholera, with the
exception of a small mohullah or section near the bazaar; here 12 deaths occurred.
The well used by the inhabitants of this mohullah was very foul, the brick-work
was broken, and a number of pigeons allowed to roost in it; the depth of this well
was 19 feet, and it contained only 2 feet of water.
Prior to the out-break
of cholera there had not been sufficient rain to affect the water in the wells ; a
fall of 6-10ths was registered at Jubbulpore on the 24th June, and 3-10ths on
the 26th ; before these dates there had been no rain for 12 days.
Garaghat,—one mile from Patun, a large village, with a population of 770,
chiefly Brahmins; 3 deaths only occurred, the first on the 14th June. The water-
supply is derived solely from wells.
188. Konee,—a large village with a population of 600, 3 miles from Patun,
across the Hirun river; it is situated immediately under the Bhanner hills, which
here present an almost perpendicular wall, upwards of 1,000 feet in height; the
village is built on hard rock, and the ascent to it steep and rocky. As before
stated, a Bunneah travelling to Saugor arrived suffering from cholera, and died
on the 28th May ; his body was thrown into the river; the disease did not then
spread in the village, which does not again appear in the Police reports till the
28th of June, when 4 deaths were reported at the Patun station-house. From
this time the disease prevailed till the middle of August, and altogether 33
deaths were reported. The road to Saugor crosses the Bhanner range a little
below Konee, and by this route cholera appears to have reached Surwakookee, on
the other side the range, where a case was reported on the 5th July ; the disease,
however, did not spread in this direction. As early as the 3rd June, however, the
disease had been conveyed across the Hirun, probably by the ferry at Bliyron-
ghat, to a narrow valley between an out-lier of the Kymore range and the
southern portion of the Bhanner. In this isolated valley the village of Koothree
was attacked on the 12th June, and lost 13 persons out of a population of 225;
and deaths were reported from the villages of Arnakohee and Burma, in the
same valley, on the 6th July.
189. The villages along the road to Dumoh and Saugor by Kultunghee
experienced a like immunity with those on the other roads radiating from Jub-
bulpore. This road, crossing the Hirun at Kuttunghee, and winding through
the narrow space between the main Kymore range and the Bhanner hills, crosses
the latter by Singrampore and Jubbera. From the latter town, which is on
what was then the boundary between the Jubbulpore and Dumoh district, one
death from cholera was reported on the 1st June; the disease did not then spread