474 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol. XXV. 



made by the Forest Depot. On such lands nothing lives but 

 bandicoots, rats and mice. This flat Delta land covered with paddy- 

 continues up to the sea-coast — or to within a few miles of it, where 

 it is replaced by scrub jungle. In this belt there are considerable 

 areas of reserves where tidal or coastal forests were originally 

 protected. 



" Every year the Sittang River continues the process of extend- 

 ing the Indian b]mpire, increasing it by silting up about another 

 mile of sea. In the first year, this grows a crop of a coarse grass 

 called 'Pinle Saba' (^sea paddy) which is replaced next year by 

 tidal shrubs, which are in turn graduall}', and by fairly definite 

 stages, replaced by scriib jungle. This is grazed down and cut for 

 fuel by villagers until it has taken the salt out of the soil, and can 

 be replaced by paddy fields. 



^ " The anniial extension seawards is about half a mile to a mile, 

 and, when the scrub jungle has disappeared, it produces some of the 

 finest paddy land in the world. 



" The whole area is inundated throughout the rains (travelling is 

 done by sampan), and the seaward part of the scrub jungle belt is 

 covered with salt water every high tide. This brings up mud, 

 fills in all cracks, and gradually raises the level of the land until it is 

 above tide level. After that a deposit of mud is laid down every 

 year in the rains, and in this way the salt is washed out of the soil 

 and the level raised until it becomes paddy land. The tidal forest 

 belt is from four to ten miles wide, and consist of dense thickets of 

 various bushes which will grow in salt swampy localities. 



" The dhove somewhat lengthy dissertation is required to imder- 

 stand the distribution of species in the district. In the North the 

 usual fauna is found. That in the South consists, apart from bats, 

 which are not common, of rats and mice (the terms are not used 

 scientifically), which live in the paddy-fields while they are dry, 

 and presumably in villages in the rains, and of the animals living 

 in the coastal jungle belts, e.g., Viverriculse, and cats of various 

 descriptions, thamin (brow-antlered deer), hogdeer, and pig, I have 

 seen the last two, but cannot vouch for thamin. . . . One spot 

 is called 'Singyum' (Elephant Island), and various 'oldest inhabitants' 

 say that 60 or 70 years ago elephants were not rare down there. 

 There are no squirrels, bamboo rats, or tupaias, and I was unable to 

 hear of any monkej^s." 



Mr. Mackenzie adds the following notes on species of which he 

 failed to obtain specimens : — 



" Macaca sp. — Vernacular name. — Karon — Ta-c 



" Viverra sp. — Vernacular name. — Karen — Shaw. 



" Muntiacus c/randicornis — Vernacular name. — Karen — Daohoh or Tachee 

 (cA soft.) 



" Cervus jwi'cinus and C. eldi. — Occur. See my note on the Delta area. 

 Vernacular names. — Karen — Dachyeu and Thamakong. 



