?SS Mr. White'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- 

 motion 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 aa 

 assimilation to an earthquake. 



The size of the Eln-Kandy is various ; sometimes from choice, 

 at 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 purpose, and left standing at 15 or 20 yards from each 



* Mr. Pennant has therefore been led into an error in saying that ashes procured by 

 burning on the spot are used as manure.— Vide Pennant's India, vol. i. 



other. 



