258 HBLATION OF FORESTS TO 



tions of Nellumboor, in Malabar, which were commenced in 1844, 

 and now covered upwards of 2,400 acres, were a splendid instance of 

 luxuriant forest growth on a good soil, in a foreign climate, and 

 under good management. The moist region of the Himalaya and 

 the eastern part of India had a much larger extent. The Kangra 

 valley, in the Punjab, had a rainfall of 100 inches, and from here 

 the moist narrow belt, but widening gradually, ran in a south-westerly 

 direction as far as Sikkim. Near Simla, the width of this belt, with 

 a rainfall of 75 inches, was not more than 30 miles. Near Darjeel- 

 inz, it extended into and comprised the whole of Assam, Eastern 

 Bengal, as far as Dacca and British Burmah. A second belt of 

 between 60 and 75 miles, ran outside the foot of the Himalaya, 

 comprising the estuary of the Ganges and part of Orissa. Within 

 these moist regions of northern and eastern India, were a great 

 variety of good f )rests. Only a small portion of the deodar forests 

 of the north-west Himalaya fell within this belt, the greater part 

 lying inland, where the rainfall was less than sixty inches. The 

 india-rubber forests of Assam and Cachar were within the range of 

 the heavy rainfall as well as the ironwood forests of Arracan and the 

 teak forests of British Burmah. 



" Between the dry and moist belts there lay, as has been intimated 

 above, a vast tract of country with an annual rainfall varying 

 from thirty to sixty inches. In this part of India the main obstacle 

 to a luxuriant forest growth was not so much an insufficient supply 

 of moisture as its unequal distributions over the seasons of the year. 

 In the grenter portion there was a long dry season and a short rainy 

 season. During the dry season the leaves and grass get excessively 

 dry and inflammable, and the smallest spark was then sufficient to 

 create a conflagration, which did not stop until it had reached the 

 limits of the forest. These jungle-fires destroyed millions of seed- 

 lings, and those which escaped were scarred and had in them the 

 germs of early decay. The jangle-fires were sufficient to explain the 

 remarkable fact that, in a large proportion of the forests of Southern 

 and Central India, and in some of those of the north, the mature trees 

 were unsound or hollow." 



I could scarcely desire a better illustration of what I mean by a 

 general correspondence between the distribution of rainfall and of 

 forests, leaving out of view all that may be said bearing upon the 

 question of cause and effect, than is afforded by this statement. 



A view similar to that advanced in regard to the geographical 



