102 ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF FORESTS IN INDIA. 



tarium of Mahableshwur, south of Bombay, 4300 feet above the 

 sea, has a fall of 250 inches ; but Panchgunny, at a distance of 

 only 10 miles inland from the crest of the ghats, has 50 inches ; and 

 Poona, 30 miles from the ghat line, has a fall of only 27 inches. 

 This rapid decrease of moisture inland explains that the western 

 limit of the southern dry belt runs within a short distance from the 

 crest of the ghats. At the southern extremity of the Peninsula the 

 rain near the coast diminishes, so that Cape Comorin, with 28 inches, 

 and Palamcotta, with 22, fall into the southern dry zone. 



Eorest vegetation in the western moist region is in places fully as 

 luxuriant as in Burma and Eastern Bengal. There are the same 

 great classes of dry deciduous forest, with the jungle-fires as a 

 regular, annnally recurring institution, and the moist evergreen 

 forests, including what are commonly called the Sholas of the 

 Neilgherries, into which the jungle fires do not enter. The rich 

 variety of trees in both descriptions of forest has been carefully 

 studied by Major Beddome, the present head of the Forest Depart- 

 ment in the Madras Presidency, and author of the first forest flora 

 published in India, containing a full account of the trees and shrubs 

 of Southern India. In the forcing climate of Malabar, in the heart 

 of this moist region, is the oldest and as yet most extensive teak 

 plantation in India. Commenced in 1844 by Mr Conolly, then 

 Collector of that district, its present extent is upwards of 2500 

 acres. A hundred acres on an average were planted annually, so 

 that there is a regular succession of thriving plantations, the oldest 

 being now twenty-eight years old, with tall stems 70 to 80 feet 

 high, a splendid instance of the rapid growth of the teak tree in its 

 youth, under good care and in a favourable climate. The northern 

 half of the western moist zone is in the Presidency of Bombay. In 

 this part of India a regular administration of the public forest-lands 

 was attempted as early as 1846, and the result of the early attention 

 paid to this matter may be seen in a large and steady forest revenue, 

 between L.82, 000 and L. 123,000 annually during the last six years, 

 one-half of which has been a net addition to the general revenues of 

 the Empire. At the same time, the forests in several districts of 

 the Presidency have considerably increased in value ; they now 

 contain a larger stock of growing timber than at the time that 

 conservancy was commenced, and plantations have not been 

 neglected. 



While thus a good deal has been done to increase the growth of 

 useful indigenous trees, the introduction of foreign trees has not 



