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238 Mr. Wurrte’s Description and Natural History 
the large trees lie where they fall; the shrubs, roots, and grass 
are piled up in different small heaps, and their spontaneous and 
.gradual decomposition fertilizes the space they cover *. 
They mention it as an infallible sign of future fertility, if the 
large trees, on falling, cause a trembling of the adjacent soil or 
mountain, as their phrase is; though it is not very probable that 
they ever reject a spot once chosen and begun upon, from the 
absence of this equivocal and perhaps imaginary symptom. Yet, 
if it really does take place, a rationale may be applied to explain 
it; for, as the soil of those woods is a very fine mould, soft and 
rare in proportion to its volume, so, where thin, and superficially 
intercepted by rocky or gravelly strata, it is not likely that it 
will be much affected by the gravity of the fall. On the contrary, 
if of great depth, the shock will be readily felt, and the com- 
niotion communicated through the spongy mass, connected as it 
is by a close intertexture of roots and fibres, and thus exciting 
in the sanguine and simple fancy of those children of nature an 
eine to an earthquake. E 
The size of the Ela-Kandy is various ; sometimes from TENN 
dt others, determined by the nature and extent of the surface or 
slope. The largest I saw among fifty did not exceed 60 yards in 
one diameter, and 40 in the other. Their form varies likewise, 
very commonly oblong or oval, sometimes a contour irregularly - 
rounded. The variety in these respects is chiefly owing to the 
convenience of the standard or permanent trees for shade. 
Those with lofty strait stems, extensive heads, and that are in 
an adolescent state, and known to be long-lived, are preferred 
for this — and left nn at 15 or 20 yards from s 
* Mr. Pennant bas therefore been led into an error in saying that ashes procured by 
ones on the spot are used as manure,—Vide Pennant’s India, vol. i. - 
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