IRON ORES OF KUNJAMULLAY. 163 



which is extensively adopted on some of the hill ranges,) is that of 

 felling and burning down the forest in order to cultivate the freshly 

 cleared piece of ground for a couple or at most three years, and then 

 allowing it to return to forest growth, while a fresh piece of forest land 

 is cleared, in its turn to be abandoned after a few crops have been raised 

 on it. This is the so-called ponahad cultivation, and is the cause of 

 the numerous conflagrations, often on an immense scale, which during 

 the hot season may be seen in progress on the flanks and summits of 

 the various mountains of this part of India."^ 



The smaller fires, kindled with the professed objects of improving 

 the grass, are, in their way, also very injurious, by killing every sapling 

 that the flames may encounter. That such is the case, any one may 

 assure himself by taking the trouble to follow up the track of the fire. 



That these practices have told and are daily telling more and more 

 on the supply of wood generally, cannot be doubted, seeing that the 

 price of charcoal has been almost doubled of late, and that timber of 

 decent quality is with difiiculty obtained. 



It is owing, most likely, to the greatly increased price of charcoal 

 that the number of native iron-smelting furnaces in Salem district has 

 decreased in the last years, as shown by a return furnished by H. A. Brett, 

 Esquire, the Collector. The natives in that district almost universally com- 

 plain of great and serious diminution of the annual rain-fall, which certainly 

 must be influenced by the wholesale destruction of the forests ; while, 

 from their great extent, and the numerous passes afibrding exit into the 

 low country, the Forest Conservancy Department have as yet had but little 

 power in materially diminishing the evil. 



It is certain that unless much greater facilities for obtaining fuel 

 can be given, the ore of Kunjamullay and the other places in the vicinity 



* It is supposed by many that such a fire sweeps past the larger trees without doing 

 them any harm ; but such is practically not the case, as the heat given out by a burnino- 

 thicket of brushwood or bamboo clamps, is enough to scorch and blast the largest trees, and 

 burn off all the smaller branches and twigs. 



(885) 



