DISTBIBUTION OF RATW TAT.T. m DJDIA. 257 



the dry zones of India. The spontaneous arborescent vegetation was 

 scanty, save in the moist lands along the great rivers, but it was 

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

 part of the Deccan, was the country of the 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 

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

 country the conditions for forest v^etation were not everywhere as 

 favourable in India as in Europe. Really 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. Withia 

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

 rising to 250 inches) and in Eastern India, there was a great variety, 

 of good forest. Of the Deodar forests of the North-West Himalaya 

 a small portion only fell into this belt, the greater part lying in land 

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

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

 more than 30, but less than 60 inches, comprising the greater portion 

 of the upper Gangetic plain, the whole of Central 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- 

 sufficient 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 exceeded 75 inches, the smaller one along the 

 western coast of the peninsula, and the more extensive one on the 

 outer Himalaya ranges, the hUls of Bengal, and the coasts of Burmab. 



" On the western coast the rainfell 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. Kutnaghem had 115, and Canara had 123 inches. 

 Approaching the southern extremity of the peninsula, the rainfall 

 gradually diminished to 28 inches at Cape Comorin. In this narrow 

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

 forests of North Canara, protected by the difficult nature of the 

 country, the teak and 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 foresta of Central France. The teak plantar 



2a 



