100 REPORT — 1851. 



APPENDIX. 



In 184-7 the Court of Directors sent a despatch to the Supreme Govern- 

 ment, requesting the attention of the authorities to the effect of trees on the 

 climate and productiveness of a country or district. On receiving this com- 

 munication, the Madras Government directed a circular to their revenue 

 officers requesting them to forward any of the required information in their 

 power, and several valuable reports were accordingly received in reply, some 

 of which we annex as follows : — 



General Cullen, Resident of Travancore : — " There cannot perhaps be a 

 more beautiful illustration of the effect of mountain chains in arresting and 

 condensing the vapour, than the generally luxuriant forests which clothe the 

 eastern as well as the western ghauts, but which cease almost immediately on 

 quitting those chains. The forests on the east coast, as might be expected, 

 are less lofty and luxuriant than those in Malabar, not only from the fall of 

 rain on tiie east coast being only half that of Malabar, but also because 

 they are in general double the distance from the sea, the chief source of all 

 vapour. 



" There can of course be little question as to the effect forests must have 

 during a great part of the year, in preventing the dissipation of the super- 

 ficial moisture, but I should doubt if that circumstance can have much in- 

 fluence on the supply of water from springs. The effect of the sun's rays 

 on the earth, even when fully exposed to them, is sensible to but a very 

 inconsiderable depth from the surlace, and not at all so far as the subsidence 

 of the water forming springs. The copiousness of springs must be influenced 

 so much by a variety of other causes as to render the effect of forests hardly 

 appreciable. The vicinity to elevated table-lauds and mountains and hills, 

 the nature of the rocks, and inclination of the strata, the general slope of 

 the country, the absorbent qualities of the soil, &c., must all have the 

 most important influence. At Trevandruin, even on eminences, the wells at 

 a depth of forty feet from the surface rise occasionally several feet with a 

 fall of rain of only the same number of inches, and within two or three days 

 after heavy falls. 



" In the forests of this coast, and above the ghauts in the western parts of 

 Mysore, Wynaad and Coorg, the trees are, I believe, everywhere nearly 

 destitute of leaves during the early part of the year, the driest and the hottest 

 season ; so that even in forest tracts the earth is at that period exposed to 

 nearly the full force of the sun's rays. 



" The long grass and low jungle are also generally burnt down in these 

 months, and the general heat and dryness in passing through such tracts are 

 frequently intolerable. The almost entire absence of moisture and springs 

 in forest tracts in the dry season is well known. 



" The district of Ernaad in Malabar, formerly so celebrated for its teak 

 forests, and still, I believe, with nmch forest of other kinds, is, I believe, for 

 the most part a plain and nearly level, but in the hot season is like the other 

 tracts I have noticed, equally destitute of vegetation and moisture, and I 

 speak of these facts from having, although many years ago, passed over all 

 the tracts in question." 



Surgeon C. J. Smith, Bangalore : — " In the Mulnaad and Coorg the quan- 

 tity of rain that falls is very great ; and to what can we attribute this, but 

 to the influence of the ghauts and hilly country inland, covered with dense 

 jungles, which attract and retain the largest portion of the south-west mon- 

 soon ? Bellary, Seringapatam, and Octacamund are nearly in the same pa- 

 rallel of longitude, but at different distances from the line of ghauts, and to 



