DISTRIBUTION OF RAINFALL IN INDIA. 257 



the dry zones of India. The spontaneous arborescent vegetation was 

 scanty, save in the moist lauds aloug the great rivers, but it was 

 better than in the arid tract. In the southeru dry zone, comprising 

 part of the Deccan, was the country of tlie sandal wood, a small tree 

 which did not grow gregariously, and did not form continuous forests. 

 Here, too, were the ancient irrigation works, tanks, and gigantic 

 stone dams across rivers ; and where water was thus supplied, fields 

 and gardens were most luxuriant. 



" Beyond these dry zones, and in the rest of India generally, the 

 rainfall exceeded 30 inches; but even in these moister parts of the 

 country the conditions for forest vegetation weie not everywhere as 

 favourable in India as in Europe. Eeally thriving forests were only 

 found where the fall exceeded 45 inches, and luxuriant vegetation 

 was limited to those belts which had a much higher rainfall. Within 

 the moist regions, with a rainfall exceeding 60 inches (in one place 

 rising to 250 inches) and in Eastern lndi;i, tliere was a great variety 

 of good forest. Of the Deodar forests of the North-West Him;ihiya 

 a small portion only fell into this belt, the greater pirt lying in laud 

 where the rainfall was less than 60 inches. Between the dry and 

 moist regions was a vast tract of country with an annual rainfiU of 

 more than 30, liut less than 61inches, comprising the greater portion 

 of the upper Ga:igetic phiiu, the whole of Ceutral India, and the 

 western side of the peninsula. In this part of India the main 

 obstacle to a luxuriant forest growth was not so much an in- 

 suflBcient supply of moisture, as its unequal distribution over the 

 seasons of the year. Of the moist zones, there were two in which 

 the annual rain exceed-^d 75 inches, the smaller one along the 

 western coast of the peuinsula, ami the more extensive one on the 

 outer Himalaya ranges, the hills of Bengal, and the coasts of Burraah. 

 " Ou the western coast the rainfall was moderate as far down 

 as Surat, 47 inches, and Bombay had 72 inches ; but Janna, only 

 a few miles inland, had 102. Further down the coast the rain- 

 fall was heavier. Rutnaghem had 115, and Canara had 123 inches. 

 Approaching the soutaeru extremity of the peniusula, the rainfall 

 gradually diminished to 28 inches at C.ipe Comoriu. In this narrow 

 moist belt were found some of the finest forests in India. The teak 

 forests of Noi'tli Canara, protected by the difficult nature of the 

 country, the teak aud blackwood forests of Wynaad and the 

 Anamallays and the forests of Travancore were reputable forests, 

 which might stand comparison with the oak and beech forests of the 

 Spessart, and the oak forests of Central France. The teak planta- 



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