4
the space between the front of opposite pendalls being occupied by the hor e
lines.The
pendalls are built on a plinth of 2 feet high, and each contains
42 rooms. Each quarter consists of two rooms—a large one 14½ by 11 feet, and
a small one by 11 by 5 feet. The superficial area of the larger room is 159.5
square feet, and its cubic contents nearly 2,000 feet. A 5-feet verandah runs
down both in the front and rear of the pendalls. The height to the ridge is 18feet
9 inches, of the external wall 10 feet, of the internal wall 14 feet 3 inches, and of the
door 4 feet 6 inches. The back verandahs have, I think, most wrongly, been allowed
to be enclosed, so that it is impossible that there can be any free perfiation of air.
In some instances the eaves come down within 4 feet 8 inches of the ground; and
doors and windows have been made in the outer wall—one, measured, was only
2 feet 10 inches by 1 foot 8 inches—so that the condition of the rooms inside must
be unhealthy. I think the back verandahs ought to be kept free, and small win-
dows, 3 feet by 2, should be placed in the external wall both in the front and rear
rooms. If there are objections to windows being now constructed, then there
should be three circular holes, each one foot in diameter, made along the walls
both in front and rear. The roofs are tiled, but have no ventilators. I think
continuous ridge-ventilation is much needed. Another objectionable arrangement
is found in the compounds—which are about 30 feet broad—which have been
allowed to be made in the rear of each quarter. These compounds are sur-
rounded by mud walls, and in them is the washing-place and the privy.
4. The men of the Poona Horse are, however, sons of the old gentry of this
part of the Deccan, and none of their wives or daughters can appear in public;
and I am told it would cause great discontent if these compounds were removed.
It would not be well, therefore, however desirable from a sanitary point of view,
to insist on a measure which would cause irritation; but I think they should be
inspected, say twice a week, by a European Officer; and I think better arrange-
ments for the privies in them should be made: these at present consist of 2
stones placed on the bare ground, between which the people defoecate, and all
the urine and ablution-water sinks into the ground. I think one of Crawford's
patent rural privies might, with advantage, be erected in each, which would
ensure the removal of all filth and the preservation of the ground from contami-
nation ; and a proper drain should be constructed in the centre of each street
between the compound walls, through which the bathing-water could be carried
(if the levels will permit of it) to a garden, to be formed on the flank of each
line.
5. A space of 18 feet intervenes between the front verandah of the
pendalls and the gutter in rear of the horse lines, and the width between oppo-
site pendalls across the horse lines is 120 feet; the urine from all the horses
now sinks into the ground beneath them, and there decomposes. This is neither
good for the horses or the men living near them. There should, in my opinion,
be beneath each horse a barred opening, through which the urine could run into
a paved drain leading to the garden I have spoken of above. It would be easy
to cleanse out these drains every day. The soil on which the horses stand,
consists of a hard moorum, but it gets thoroughly softened and saturated with
decomposed urine.
6. The water-supply for the lines is derived from the river, being fetched
by puckal bhisties for the use of the men and their families; but the question of
the water-supply to Sirur is one that should, I think, engage attention. Colonel
LaTouche has mentioned to me a proposal to dig a well near the river, from
which the water could be pumped by a windmill or steam-pump into a reservoir,
from which it would flow by gravitation into the town and the regimental
lines; and I should be very glad if this work could be now carried out as a
famine relief work, as it, in my opinion, is much wanted.