UPPER INDIA. 9 



grounds, and the forests in their neighbourhood will be cut 

 down as fuel : this will create greater surface-drainage. 



The destruction caused by inundations in the valley of the 

 Ardeche, the Po, and other European rivers, is attributed to 

 increased surface- drainage, caused by cutting down the forests 

 near their sources ; and will not increased surface- drainage, 

 caused by felling the forests in the Himalayas, lead to like 

 disastrous consequences ? The floods in the valley of the 

 Sutlej, which carried away the railway bridge between 

 Phillor and Loodianah, may probably be a result of cutting 

 down the forests in the hills near the sources of this river, 

 for timber for stations in the Punjab, &c. 



In the hills, where the surface-soil is generally light vege- 

 table soil formed of decomposed leaves, overlying rock, it is 

 easily washed away ; and any attempts to reclothe such pre- 

 cipitous hillsides with forest growth would be futile. It is, 

 perhaps, enough to state here that Marsh, in his book " Man 

 and Nature," gives instances where whole districts have been 

 ruined and depopulated from the felling of forests on hill- 

 sides. Is it even possible that the forests on the hills in 

 India can be cut down without similar results ? Do we not 

 see in hill stations in India landslips occurring in every direc- 

 tion, the result of cutting down the trees, or man's inter- 

 ference in some way with the natural surface and slope of the 

 land? The case is different where tea or other plantations 

 are formed, as here, if properly managed, attempts would be 

 made to prevent loss of water by surface- drainage and wash- 

 ing away of the soil. 



It is during the hot weather, the season of the hot winds, 

 when we have this intense heat, that we hear of sunstroke 

 and heat apoplexy. 



Now sunstroke does not appear to be caused by the inci- 

 dence of the direct rays of the sun alone, but by that com- 



