3-065-782 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Famine in Bengal: bullock hackeries for carrying grain, 1874. 'The telegraph reports of this week from Calcutta tell us that the relief operations of Government are ahead of the famine everywhere, except in portions of Tirhoot, where lost ground is also being recovered. It is stated that 120,000 tons of Government grain have been stored in the famine districts, and 80,000 tons are in transit, the railways conveying 35,000 tons daily...No deaths are anywhere reported, except in Tirhoot, where inquiry shows that few are attributable to starvation. The great difficulty felt in Bengal is that of conveyance into every district for the rice and grain of other kinds which are actually in store to a sufficient amount for present need. The vehicles, whether on land or water, available for this purpose, off the lines of railroad and other main traffic, are of the rudest construction. We lately gave an Illustration of the kind of barge in native use to be found on the rivers and canals of India; we now present one of the bullock-carts or "hackeries," which are equally slow and clumsy. Both are from sketches made in that country by Mr. William Simpson, our well-known travelled Special Artist'. From "Illustrated London News", 1874.