THE HILL SAL FOREST. 33 



One or two which, are still active, are composed of bare detritus, 

 or covered with grasses, sissoo and kJiair. Measurements on a slip 

 which came down in the monsoon of 1920 showed a depth of new 

 detritus -20''ihick and 400 yards broad at a point more than a mile 

 away from the place of origin, and the sissoo and khair thickets 

 which originally covered its surface were so buried that only the 

 tops of the trees were showing. -The bare surface is again being 

 covered with sissoo and Tehair seedlings. Somewhat older slips, 

 where the surface has been stabilised for some time show a forest 

 type which Channer 17 has called the new riverain forest and 

 composed chiefly of simal, haldu, kanju, jhingan, etc. On the 

 oldest slips, where a thick covering of rich fertile loam has 

 accumulated, overlying a great depth (up to 80' and 100') of the 

 sandstone detritus, we find sal forests of absolutely the finest . 

 quality in the zone of the species. When the Nepal Durbar gave 

 the Indian Government a war present of a quarter of a million of 

 B. Gr. sleepers, it was exclusively from these landslip forests that 

 Collier was able to obtain the supply. Collier has recorded a tree, 

 probably the finest sal tree ever felled, with a b. h. girth of 16', 

 and a clear bole of 80' which, when sawn up, gave 96 B. G. 

 sleepers (=340 c. ft.) and 120 c. ft. of M. Gr. sleepers and 

 scantlings, or a total output of sawn timber of 460 c. ft. In some 

 of the best patches 1,000 B. G. sleepers (=3500 c. ft.) were 

 obtained per acre, without felling any trees below 5' girth. 



This sub-type of forest covers approximately 5,000 acres in 

 British territory (and a large area in adjoining Nepal territory), 

 and is mostly managed under a periodic block system of concen- 

 trated regeneration. 



In the Bhabar tract proper, the sal is confined to the highest //._ 

 plateaux, and these plateaux are not found where there are Duns Bhabar 

 and conglomerate formations in the hinterland of the foot hills. 

 There is a very strong presumptive evidence that these plateaux 

 .are all that remain of the old Bhabar surface of the land (which 



17 Working Plan of Tarai and Bhabar Eslatts. CHANNER. 



3 



