196 THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



and in time there will be sal-timber galore. The sunlight 

 glistens on the shiny leaves, and its heat is pretty strong, 

 baking the dry soil where the grass has not grown very 

 thickly. For there is no water in the Bhabar, not a spring 

 nor a stream nor even a trickle in the many dry water- 

 courses which we cross ; the elephant stumbling over the 

 rounded stones and boulders, for elephants cannot 

 comfortably tread on gravel and stones. 



The great body of water which is flowing down the 

 rivers from the Himalayas is all underneath the surface, 

 filtering through the gravel beds, to break out again in 

 the Terai — new sources and new rivers. This goes on 

 in the dry season ; and the great rivers, the Ram Ganga 

 and the Sarju, are then only small, shallow streams. But 

 in the rains, when the great water-gates are loosed, then 

 all the rivers flow in full channels with swollen yellow 

 torrents, surging and ever pressing onward to join the 

 great Ganga. The result of the tropical monsoon rainfall 

 of 100 to 400 inches is that the stuff which has been washed 

 down the river valleys is now spread out in great gravel- 

 beds at the foot of the hills. The materials are sorted out, 

 the heaviest boulders and stones being carried the shortest 

 journey, the less heavy ones next, and the lighter stones, 

 gravel, and sand spread out further over the plains ; till, 

 lastly, the more soluble clays and silt are deposited, 

 forming the ' Terai.' 



The filtering of the water through gravel-beds over 

 1,000 feet thick ought to make it very pure and whole- 

 some. Unfortunately, it soon gets stagnant in the swamps 

 and sluggish mud-streams lower down. The Terai, like 

 the Roman Campagna under the Alban hills, which is a 

 similar formation, is celebrated for its deadly fevers, 

 which are worst in the autumn, when the rains are drying 

 up. But, strange to say, the dry and stony Bhabar is 



