ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FOEESTS IN INDIA. 07 



Tenasserim coast, has 201 inches; and Rangoon, situated at some 

 distance from the sea in a wide extent of nearly level country, lias 

 eighty-five inches. 



On the higher mountain ranges of this extensive moist region, 

 forests of pines and other conifers extend from the north-west Hima- 

 laya southwards to the mountains of Burma. The Deodar has its 

 eastern limit in Kumaon, hut there are other coniferous trees, which 

 extend over the eastern part of the Himalaya range. One of the 

 finest of these is Phius Khasiana, which is found as far south as the 

 high mountains between the Salween and Sitang rivers in British 

 Burma. These mountains are the seat of a numerous Karen popu- 

 lation, formerly an idle, drunken, and lawless race, which, through 

 the teaching of Christianity, brought to them by American mission- 

 aries, have become an industrious, sober, and peaceful people. Some 

 of their villages are in the midst of these splendid pine forests, and 

 I have often, when coming from the teak forests in the hot valleys 

 of the Salween and Sitang, been refreshed by the delightful fragrance 

 and cool shade of the pine trees on these hills. But, as if to remind 

 the botanist that, though in a pleasant, cool mountain climate, he is 

 within the tropics, and only 19° distant from the equator, there is an 

 underwood of the sago palm (Ci/cas) under the pine trees, and most 

 of the Karen villages are surrounded by the gigantic bamboo, which 

 yields the posts, rafters, walls, and floors of their houses. The 

 joints of this bamboo are so large that they are used as water pails 

 and buckets. There is another pine tree in Burma, nearly related to 

 a Japanese species, which grows at a lower elevation in the midst of 

 the dry and hot tropical deciduous forests. 



These tropical and subtropical pines, however, are not yet of much 

 practical importance. The production of teak timber is the main 

 object which the forester has in view in those parts of the country. 

 The export of teak timber from Bangoon is of old date; but, under 

 the Burmese rule, the quantity exported never came to any very large 

 amount. When the province of Tenasserim became British in 1826, 

 the Attaran forests, which are situated south of the town of Moul- 

 mein, were worked with great energy, and yielded large quantities 

 of excellent timber. The supply from that source, however, soon 

 diminished, and thus the attention of timber traders was directed to 

 the extensive teak-producing forests beyond the British frontier, on 

 the Salween river and its tributaries, and from that time the impor- 

 tation of foreign timber into Moulmein has steadily increased until 

 within the last few years, when the quantity floated down decreased, 



