1840.] on the Tenasserim Provinces, fyc. 159 



Preservation of health, besides, does not require here those 

 particular precautions so necessary in India. 



Bad effects from exposure are of very rare occurrence, as 

 sporting gentlemen have ample leisure to experience, and this 

 would certainly be of immense advantage to a planter, whose 

 chief occupations are in the fields. 



The coolness of the nights almost throughout the year, much 

 contributes to restore vigour and health to a constitution which 

 by constant perspiration during the heat of the day in the dry 

 season, is partially exhausted. 



The dangers from wild animals, snakes, and other venomous 

 reptiles, are generally much exaggerated in Europe, if not 

 altogether fabulous. In Tenasserim very little is to be appre- 

 hended from these animals. 



There are tigers, and pretty numerous too, in the country, 

 but they are of quite a different nature from those in Bengal, 

 and probably more afraid of men than men of them. Acci- 

 dents very seldom happen to natives, who penetrate daily into 

 untrodden jungles, sometimes quite alone. No other quadruped 

 else is to be feared; a planter may reside his whole life-time 

 in the country without even having an opportunity of seeing 

 a wild elephant or a rhinoceros. Dangerous snakes are very 

 rarely met with, and I dare say less fatal accidents happen 

 here than in the south of Europe. 



IV. The fertility of a country is of a double nature — essential 

 and accidental. The essential fertility is dependent upon the 

 nature of the soil ; the accidental, on the quantity of fertilizing 

 matter found upon the surface, constituting a mould of humus. 

 To determine properly the fertility of the Tenasserim provinces^ 

 we must retrace our steps to geological principles, and exa- 

 mine the different formations. A great portion of the surface 

 in the interior is composed of primitive rocks, chiefly granite ; 

 great parts of the mountains, running parallel from north 

 to south through the peninsula are granite or gneiss. The 

 ridges are divided by valleys of an inconsiderable depth. The 

 ! mountains themselves are scarcely ever very abruptly precipi- 

 ' tous, generally rounded near the tops, without being lacerated- 

 i Almost every where, at least to some inches in depth, the sur- 



