202 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTEAL INDIA. 



the more eastern regions. In the rainy season the teak tree 

 is surmounted by a heavy head of large green leaves, sup- 

 porting masses of yellowish white flowers ; and when in con- 

 siderable masses it then gives a peculiar and not unpleasant 

 character to the scenery. The large umbrella-like leaves are 

 admirably 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 valuable, 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 



