THE SAL FOEESTS. 371 



The valleys themselves are generally open and free 

 from all underwood, dotted here and there by belts and 

 islands of the noble sal tree, and altogether possess- 

 ing much of the character ascribed to the American 

 prairies. In their lowest parts the soil is deep, black, 

 and rich, covered with a growth of strong tall grasses. 

 As the valleys merge into the hilly ranges, the soils 

 become lighter and redder, from the lateritic topping 

 that here overlies the basaltic and granitic bases of 

 the hills ; the grasses are less rank and coarse ; and 

 in many places springs of clear cold water bubble up, 

 clothing the country with belts of perpetual verdure, 

 and conferring on it an aspect of freshness very re- 

 markable in a country of such comparatively small 

 elevation in the centre of India. Everything combines 

 to deprive this region of the sterile and inhospitable 

 appearance worn by even most upland tracts during 

 the hot season. The sal tree is almost the only ever- 

 green forest tree in India. Throughout the summer 

 its glossy dark-green foliage reflects the light in a 

 thousand vivid tints ; an^ just when all other vege- 

 tation is at its worst, a few weeks before the gates 

 of heaven are opened in the annual monsoon, the sal 

 selects its opportunity of bursting into a fresh garment 

 of the brightest and softest green. The traveller who 

 has lingered till that late period in these wilds is 

 charmed by the approach of a second spring, and it 

 requires no slight effort to believe himself still in a 

 tropical country. The atmosphere has been kept humid 

 by the moisture from the broad sheets of water retained 

 by the upland streams, which descends nightly in dews 

 on the open valleys. The old grasses of the prairie 

 have been burnt in the annual conflagrations, and a 

 covering of young verdure has taken their place. Now 



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