96 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



Himalayan pine (Pinus excelm), which are common in parks and 

 gardens in England, do not thrive in many parts of Europe. 



There is a great difference in the total rainfall in the outer and 

 inner belts of the Himalayan forests. At Simla, and in the vicinity, 

 on the outer ranges, the fall is from seventy to eighty inches, and 

 here the Deodar attains a diameter of two feet in from sixty to eighty 

 years. The moist southerly currents which prevail in summer pass 

 over the hot plains of the arid region without depositing their mois- 

 ture; but as soon as they are brought into contact with the cooler 

 air of the hills and forced upwards into regions of less atmospheric 

 pressure, condensation begins, and their surplus moisture is deposited 

 in the shape of torrents of rain. Thus, there is on the outer ranges 

 of the north-west Himalaya a narrow belt, not more than thirty miles 

 wide, with a rainfall exceeding seventy-five inches. Further inland 

 the fall decreases rapidly — Kotgurh, for instance, distant forty mdes 

 from Simla, has thirty-eight inches only. Beyond the first snowy 

 range the rains are scanty. Here, at the same elevation as in the 

 vicinity of Simla, the Deodar takes from 150 to 200 3-ears to obtain 

 a diameter of two feet; higher up the valley, at a distance, as the 

 crow flies, from the plains of 120 miles, spontaneous arborescent 

 vegetation ceases entirely, the last being the tree juniper {Juniperus 

 excelsa), fine specimens of which may be seen growing in Kew 

 Gardens. 



The moist zone, with a normal annual rainfall, exceeding seventy- 

 five inches, which comprises the outer Himalaya, extends north-west 

 as far as the Dhaoladhar range, which borders the fertile district of 

 Kangra. Beyond this the fall even on the outer hills is less. Thus 

 the station of Abbotabad, between the rivers Jhelum and Indus, has 

 only forty-one inches. South-eastward the moist zone widens. In 

 Lower Bengal the line which indicates its limit passes through Dacca, 

 reaching the coast west of Chittagong, so that Assam, the Khasia 

 hills, Silhet and Cachar, Tipperah, and Eastern Bengal, are all 

 included. This, the north-eastern moist region of India, also com- 

 prises Arracan and the coast districts of British Burma. The eastern 

 portion of this extensive moist belt has a much heavier rainfall than 

 the north-western portion, and here again it is heaviest on the moun- 

 tains. Thus, Darjding, in British Sikkim, at an elevation of about 

 7000 feet, has 125 inches; and Cherra, the former Sanatarium on 

 the Khasia hills, at 4000 feet, has an annual fall of GOO inches, or 

 fifty feet. On the Burma coast also the rain is heavy. Thus Akyab, 

 the chief town of Arracan, has 219; Tavoy, further south, on the 



