PHYSICAL FEATURES OF RAIN-FOREST REGION. 9 



a source of water supply. At present the only extensive agricultural 

 operations in the Blue Mountains are the planting of Arabian coffee, 

 which grows successfully on the southern slopes up to 4,500 and 5,000 

 feet. Above this altitude, and on the northern slopes, it grows well 

 but does not bloom and produce berries abundantly enough to be 

 profitable. Assam tea grows well at from 4,800 to 5,500 feet, but has 

 never been planted extensively. For a number of years the cultivation 

 of Cinchona, or Peruvian bark, was carried on very successfully at 

 from 4,500 to 5,900 feet, and there are now no natural obstacles to its 

 production, indeed Cinchona officinalis has become naturalized in the 

 vicinity of some of the old fields. On the southern slopes, from 5,000 

 feet downward, at least one-third of the land is out of cultivation and 

 covered with a scrub of xerophilous bushes, known locally as " ruinate." 

 Indications point to the reforestation of the ruinate as being a very 

 slow process, as some of it which has not been touched for twenty-four 

 years is far from having the beginnings of a stand of forest trees. 



The precipitate slopes on which coffee is grown are very liable to 

 landslips. During the heavy rains of November 1909, hundreds of 

 acres of coffee were destroyed in this way, and the areas they occupied 

 must remain unstable and bare for many years. The landslips that 

 were conspicuous in April 1903, when I first visited the Blue Mountains, 

 were still bare of vegetation when I last saw them in November 1909. 

 The heavy rains of that month did not cause an enlargement of the 

 old landslips, but created new ones, some of which reached up into 

 the virgin forest, where as a rule only small landslips occur. In the 

 vicinity of Cinchona I have seen areas of ruinate, in which there were 

 numerous landslips, that I was told, on creditable authority, were 

 abandoned as coffee fields over fifty years ago on account of the exces- 

 sive erosion. The indications are that the precipitate topography of 

 the coffee-growing region will ultimately lead to its abandonment for 

 all uses except the growing of vegetables, which is now carried on 

 extensively by the negro peasants. The yam, the coca (Colocasia 

 antiquorum) , the sweet potato, the turnip, the parsnip, and a small 

 onion {Allium fistulosum) are all successfully grown in small patches 

 protected from erosion by abatis of twigs and sticks. 



