214 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



fitted for the great function of vegetation at that season, 

 in breaking the direct impact of the rain torrent on 

 the soil of the hill slopes, which would otherwise soon 

 end in depriving the rocky skeletons of the hills of 

 their covering of earth and vegetation. But this foliage 

 is very deciduous, and by the month of March little 

 of it remains on the tree. Then the yellow brittle 

 fallen leaves in many places strew the ground so thickly 

 as to make silent walking impossible. As a facetious 

 friend once expressed it, in a very unnecessary whisper, 

 when we were trying to creep up to a stag sambar in 

 such a cover — "It was like walking on tin boxes." 



Forests containing any great number of tolerably 

 large teak trees are, however, now extremely few ; and, 

 as I have said, the teak has been indiscriminately hacked 

 down for every sort of purpose, for many generations, 

 over nearly the whole area where it is found. Among 

 its numerous other valuable qualities, however, it 

 includes that of rapidly throwing up a head of tall 

 slender poles from the stumps, if they are allowed 

 to remain in the ground. In five years this coppice 

 wood will attain a height of twenty-five or thirty 

 feet, and a girth of one to two feet. Such poles are 

 invaluable in a country where habitations are in great 

 measure very small, and built of wood alone — far more 

 valual)le, in fact, than larger timber, which is only 

 useful for the exceptional class of structures comprising 

 the residences of wealthy persons, European houses, 

 and public edifices. It was thus, perhaps, scarcely 

 very surprising that when we suddenly demanded from 

 the forests a large and permanent supply of large timber 

 for our railway system, we found that they could not 

 afford it, though it by no means follows that the forests 



