Central Provinces had eight months, from March to October, during which the acuteness of distress varied but little. Obviously, both as regards the period when the suffering was worst and the duration of the suffering, the Central Provinces were worst off, but the figures when treated as I have suggested give no indication of this. The objection might be met by colouring the map with a deeper shade of blackness for the tracts where intense suffering lasts longest, but the true answer is to admit that no tabulation of figures can supply all the information that is required or supersede the necessity of reading the detailed Reports.

table

area and

famine.

I have drawn up a large-scale map, a reduction of which Map and has been prepared for the Review, to which I invite atten- illustrattion as a graphic and fairly accurate representation, subject ing the to these two objections, of the area covered by the recent intensity famine, and the degrees of the severity with which the of the famine prevailed. As already explained, the colouring, which is identical for the worst parts of Madras and the worst parts of the Central Provinces, gives a rather exaggerated impression of Madras, and underrates the acuteness of the pressure in the Central Provinces. Moreover, I have been obliged to treat each district as a homogeneous unit because the data do not exist for distinguishing the pressure where the various parts of one district were differently affected. If the Government of India adopt my suggestion, and lay down any such criteria for differentiating areas, in future famines it will be possible to approach more closely to a true classification of the degrees of famine. But for the present famine I believe this to be as correct a representation as we can get; and as I used a somewhat similar, though less clearly cut, rule for classifying the areas in the previous famine of 1876-78, the figures given by the table which I have drawn up are more directly comparable with those than any others. could be.

According to this table, the total area of British territory

visited by famine was 268,000 square miles, containing a population of 70,000,000; in about half of this area, with two thirds of this population, the famine was slight; that is to say, in no district comprised in it were there for three consecutive months as much as 5 per cent. of the population on relief. In 60,000 square miles, with 114 millions of people, it was intense, the ratio of numbers on relief rising above 10 per cent. That ratio during the three worst months was 17 per cent. of the population of the whole area, and it rose as high as 20 per cent. in the North-West Provinces. In 75,000 square miles, with 17 million inhabitants, the famine was severe; that is to say, in every district the number on relief during the three worst months was between 5 and 10 per cent. of the entire population. The bottom line of the table shows the corresponding areas and population in the famine of 1876-78, as calculated by the first Famine Commission, on data which were rougher, but which corresponded somewhat with those which I have used for the present occasion. The total area affected was very nearly the same as now, 257,000 square miles against 268,000; but the population who suffered was smaller by 12,000,000, being 58,000,000 then against 70,000,000 now. The areas of intensity and severity were estimated to be much larger in the earlier famine, as well as the number of the people contained in those areas; but the area in which the famine caused slight distress was much smaller than on the last occasion. There is little doubt that we may attribute this to the action of the railways in equalizing prices; they spread the scarcity over a much wider area, but prevented its becoming so intense as it was on the former occasion, when the means of conveying a foodsupply were much more deficient.

of relief

Having thus calculated the area in which severe famine Amount prevailed, the next point is to show to what extent relief afforded. was afforded. The first Famine Commission had estimated, on the basis of previous experience, that the proportion of the population in receipt of relief would not exceed 15 per