INTRODUCTORY. 25 



problem remains unsolved in the question of our duty 

 towards these races as a Government. What I have to 

 say on these points will find a place further on. 



The region is also remarkable as forminof the meet- 

 ing-ground of some forms of vegetable and animal life, 

 which seem to be characteristic of North-eastern and 

 South-w^estern India. The principal forest-tree of upper 

 India is the Sal {Shorea rohusta), a tree whose habit it 

 is to occupy, wdiere it grows at all, the whole area, 

 almost to the exclusion of others. It thus forms vast 

 forests in the lower Himalaya, and covers also the 

 greater portion of the hilly region to the south of the 

 Gangetic valley. From the latter tract it stretches 

 along the table-land of the subdivision of Bengal called 

 Chota Nagpiir, and thence extends into the Central 

 Provinces in two great branches, separated by the open 

 cleared plain of Chattisgarh. The southern branch 

 reaches as far as the Godavari river, and the northern 

 embraces the eastern half of the highlands I have 

 described, both branches ceasing almost exactly at the 

 eightieth parallel of east longitude. To the west of this 

 the characteristic and most valuable forest-tree is the 

 Teak [Tectona grandis), which is not found at all in 

 Northern India, or Bengal, and but scantily in the 

 Central Provinces to the east of 80° longitude. The 

 Teak-tree is, however, not so exclusive in its habit of 

 growth as the Sal, appearing rather in the form of scat- 

 tered clumps among other forms than as the sole occu- 

 pant of large areas. 



Some explanation of this peculiar disposition of 

 these two timber trees may perhaps be found in their 

 habits of growth and relation to various soils. The Sal 

 is a tree possessed of a remarkable power of propagating 



