12 FORESTS AND WILD ANIMALS. 



there more severe on the young plants than in their natural forests. There 

 are always numerous young plants of timber-trees in every forest which 

 can never live, as they grow more thickly than the ground can support when 

 mature. The fittest survive ; and though fires may scorch and shrivel up 

 their leaves, I have not observed that the saplings which take root soon 

 after the burning of one season are killed by the fires of the next, though 

 many of those which are but a few months old when the fires commence are 

 destroyed. I have been told by experienced jungle-men that timber-plants 

 are burnt down for five or six consecutive years, the roots meanwhile tliick- 

 ening and strengthening underground, until they give birth to a plant suffi- 

 ciently strong to withstand the effects of the momentary wave of flame. 



The Mysore jungles may be divided into three classes. First, virgin 

 forests of heavy timber, usually found in the hill-ranges along the borders of 

 the province. They are naturally finest in such places as are inaccessible for 

 the removal of timber ; for from the more accessible parts the timber-supply 

 of the country is drawn. The virgin forests are only inhabited by a few 

 wild jungle-people. Secondly, the lighter belt of forest, usually about ten 

 miles in width, intervening between the virgin forests and civilisation. From 

 this tract the villagers procure the small timber and bamboos they require 

 for household purposes. They also graze their cattle in it, seldom entering 

 the heavier forest except during the hot weather, when pasturage elsewhere 

 is very scarce. A few villages occur in this tract, but they are rather sta- 

 tions for cattle-grazing than for cultivation, nor are they often of a permanent 

 nature. Thirdly, scrub-jungle of low and thorny bushes, which occurs at 

 intervals throughout the open cultivated country in the sterile tracts, on the 

 deserted sites of villages, &c. From this small firewood and bushes for 

 fencing are obtained, and in it the cattle and flocks of the villagers in the 

 interior are grazed. 



In the heavy forests, elephants, bison, and sambur are the chief game. 

 These animals come at certain seasons into the lighter belt. But the legiti- 

 mate occupants of the latter are the tiger, panther, bear, spotted-deer, and 

 wild hog. The wild dog ranges through both heavy and light forests, and 

 is terribly destructive to the deer tribe ; he is never found in open coun- 

 try. In the scrub-jungle, particularly in those tracts near detached hills 

 and low ranges, panthers, leopards, bears, ravine deer, wolves, and sometimes 

 antelope, are found. Antelope and wolves, however, chiefly confine them- 

 selves to large tracts of open uncultivated country, on the borders of which 

 the ryots' crops furnish the former with superior grazing, and his flocks are 

 often pounced upon by the latter. 



The following game-List comprises aU the animals found in Mysore, 



