334 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



The greater part of the total rainfall is registered during the wet 

 season, a few showers at Christmas and an occasional thunderstorm 

 in March bringing the total to about 90 inches or probably more. 

 It is in the rains that the frogs, toads and lizards on which per- 

 haps the snakes chiefly feed make their appearance, together with 

 leeches, bloodsuckers and a host of small insect life. At the end 

 of the rains a cold season ensues and in January and February 

 and even well into March a thick white frost covers the ground m 

 the mornings. Ice is formed up to a quarter of an inch thick in 

 midwinter, while in December 1908 heavy snow fell on all the 

 higher mountains including Haka peak. The cold weather is fol- 

 lowed by a hot dry season during which the atmosphere is render- 

 ed almost unendurable owing to the Chin habit of burning not 

 only where they wish to cultivate but wherever there is grass or 

 undergrowth to burn. Like many other Chin customs this is one 

 which, in the opinion of the writer, cannot be too strongly condemn- 

 ed. In a few cases it is done for the purpose of procuring game, 

 which is slaughtered as it flees in terror, but in the majority it is 

 done from pure wantonness, for the Chins keep no cattle for which 

 grazing has to be found. Indeed it is very questionable in the 

 writer's opinion whether the burning, though it makes the green 

 of the new grass more quickly obvious to the eye, does not destroy 

 the more tender and succulent grasses and allow only the coarser 

 kinds to flourish. The question has been well discussed in connec- 

 tion with its effect on teak forests, and there seems to be no doubt 

 that a large amount of the valuable nitrogenous products of the 

 vegetation is lost -to the soil by the process. Innumerable young 

 trees are either killed or their growth suddenly checked so that the)* 

 become stunted and deformed. 



After the burning, ferns, thistles and grasses appear and the 

 ground is beautified with the colours of violets (Viola patrinii), 

 Primulas (Primula denticulata) and other flowers. 



Such are the conditions prevailing where the collection was made, 

 but it is not to be supposed that it is in any way representative- 

 even of the Haka Sub-division, still less of the Chin Hills as it was 

 made within very narrow limits. Nearer the plains it is said that 

 the pretty tree-snakes, Dryopliis, etc., abound, while in the valleys 



