THE TEAK REGION. 217 



distance over the level plateau of the Bdtiil district, in a 



shallow channel, which, in the hot season, forms a chain 



■of silent pools fringed by great Kowa trees and by the 



thick green cover of Jaman and Karonda, in which 



tigers delight to dwell. The surrounding country in 



this part of its course is partially cleared and cultivated 



with rice and sugar-cane. Presently, however, it 



commences its descent towards the level of the lower 



plains, plunging into a glen river through the basalt, 



and assumes the character of a mountain torrent. Here 



and there it widens out into little bays of level valley 



land ; but is henceforth, for a hundred miles or so, 



generally shut in between high banks rising from the 



edge of its channel. Through these the rapid drainage 



of the higher hills has cut innumerable narrow channels 



down to the level of its bed, which spread out above 



into an interminable series of rocky gullies, seeming in 



every direction a long succession of rolling basaltic 



waves. The surface of these tracts has been weathered 



in places into a penurious soil, bearing multitudes of 



round black boulders of trap, ranging in size from an 



egg to a small house, and salted over with small white 



agate splinters, both apparently eliminated from the 



mother rock in the process of decomposition. This 



surface is covered with a growth of coarse grass, varying 



according to the depth of the soil from a few inches to 



several feet in height, and is studded with small trees, of 



which ninety-nine in every hundred are the Salei, or 



frankincense tree {Boswellia tliurifera). 



This tree has hitherto been regarded as a mere 

 incumbrance to the ground. Its timber is soft and 

 spongy, and is certainly valueless for building and such 

 purposes. It has also been rejected as firewood, its 



