AN EXPLORATIOX IX THE FAR EAST. 435 



suffered where the tribe is more numerous, and where 

 they cut it down for dhya cultivation. Many of the 

 trees are annually ringed for the extraction of dammer ; 

 but the forest is too extensive to be much injured by 

 the operations of this handful of savages ; and as it is 

 the oldest trees that are selected, which, if not cut 

 down, soon become useless from heart-shake and dry-rot 

 (a peculiarity of the sal), probably little harm is done 

 by them in so remote and inaccessible a region. The 

 general elevation of the country we traversed is about 

 1,700 feet above the sea. It is very level, and with a 

 light porous soil formed by the detritus of the primitive 

 rocks, which here mostly lie near the surface. The 

 water-courses are broad, shallow, and sandy, showing 

 that large floods do not occur. Thus in the summer 

 there is little or no water on the surface, but a little 

 below it the soil is everywhere full of moisture ; and 

 the brilliant greenery of the sal forest thus plentifully 

 supplied with sap, melting in the distant vistas with 

 startling rapidity into wonderful blues, is unspeakably 

 delicious at that torrid season of the year. Wild animals 

 are very scarce, owing to the absence of water, though 

 in the rainy season elephants, buffaloes, bison, and 

 innumerable red deer are reported to frequent the forest. 

 In this march the dainty footmarks of a few four- horned 

 antelopes at the water-holes, the voice of the cuckoo in 

 the early morning, and rare glimpses of some hornbill or 

 woodpecker glancing among the foliage of the Sc4I, was 

 all the sign we saw^ of the presence of animal life. 



It is very difficult to ascertain distances in these 

 extensive level forests, where there are no eminences 

 from which the country can be examined ; and we had 

 some tremendous marches in consequence of relying on 

 statements of distance made in " coss" by the Bhiimias. 



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