35 



Here and there the train passes a village where a few Knj^h'sh 

 and a crowd of cooh'es meet it. Occasionally small rock gorges 

 with white waterfalls in them open out into the valley; rarely 

 there is a small patch of forest in a gorge or along an especially 

 rocky place; hut in every direction there is tea and yet more 

 tea as far as the eye can reach. 



Tea will flourish at great altitudes in this country. Several 

 years ago the government decided to sell no lanrl above the 

 5,000-foot level. This is intended not merely to preserve the 

 forest and to make permanent the supply of forest products, 

 but chiefly to control the headwaters of the rivers and reduce the 

 dangers of floods. Before this decision was made a good deal 



Fig. 3:^. The mossj^ forest of Ceylon, altitude 6000 feet. 



of land at the higher elevation had already been sold and is now 

 planted to tea. Nevertheless, the tops of most of the higher 

 mountains are still forested, and one can easily see how some of 

 the estates run right up to the limit, leaving a horizontal forest 

 margin around the whole mountain. This is the only reason for 

 the absence of tea, however, and it is quite likely that the whole 

 mountain region of Ceylon would be one vast tea garden but for 

 this governmental regulation. 



The shade trees in the lower levels are mostly Para rubber. 



