VEJITEBR.^TES OF TRE JALPAIGURI DISTRICT, BENGAL. 821 



and have rocky, gravelly, or sandy beds according to their distance 

 from the hills. For the first few miles after leaving their gorges, 

 these hill streams are confined to some extent b}'" the necessity of 

 cutting their way through the plateau, but once in the plains they 

 spread out to an enormOus width. Except a few of the larger 

 ones, these hill rivers disappear underground for some part of their 

 length in the dry season causing a waterless tract some miles wide 

 from north to south. The streams which rise in the plains are 

 in almost every respect the opposite of those which rise in the 

 hills ; they have narrow beds and high banks with overhanging 

 evergreen vegetation, and vary very little at the different seasons. 



The northern part of the district is nearly all either tea-grant or 

 Government forest and the southern part nearly all cultivation ; 

 the distribution of these three is shown on the accompanying map. 

 The tea-grants are not all entirely under tea. Parts of them 

 are grazing land, savannah, and, in a few cases, tree-forest. The 

 Government forests are mostly tree-forest though there are still 

 a few fair-sized savannahs and some forest villages. 



The forests of the plains consist of a great variety of trees 

 of which the commonest is Sal and there is generallj^ a heavy 

 undergrowth of shrubs and creepers mostly evergreen. In the 

 river beds Khair and Sissoo forest is found. This is not evergreen 

 and usually has a lighter undergrowth or simply grass. The 

 forest of the hills consists of trees with moderate iindergrowth and 

 some bamboos in the valleys. Where shifting cultivation has been 

 practised there is an almost impenetrable mass of shrubs and 

 creepers. 



The savannahs consist mostly of tall grass usually from 8 to 15 

 feet high with scattered trees ; there are some areas with shorter 

 grass. The area of savannah throughout the district is much 

 smaller than formerly and constantly on the decrease owning to the 

 extension of cultivation, tea and grazing outside the Government 

 forests, and fire protection, which tends to encourage trees, within 

 them. 



The cultivation in the plains is almost entirely irrigated paddy 

 land and a good deal of jute is grown. There are practically no 

 large villages as in some other parts of India and the homesteads of 

 the cultivators, surrounded by clumps of bamboos and betel-palms, 

 are scattered among the paddy fields at frequent intervals. 



We have included a few photographs of the various types of 

 locality to make the above descriptions clearer to those who do not 

 know the district. 



The average temperature in the plains is between 60° and 70° 

 during the cold weather (November to February) and between 

 75" and 80° during the rest of the year. Frost is rare. The 

 average rainfall at Jalpaiguri is 127 inches. The rainfall increases 



