8 MIDDLEMISS: PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF SUB-HIMALAYA. 



moist regions, there are no flowers, except a few large ones flaming 

 here and there. Nature is too full of life to need such artificial aids 

 to fertilization. 



It is rather the forms of the forest elements which give the 

 charm. A thick grove of Sell trees (Shorea robusta), covering a flat 

 chaor, 1 is a magnificent sight in itself, even though its primeval maze 

 of climbers, &c, has fallen before the conserving care of the Forest 

 Department. But when broken country is reached, — when the flat 

 plateau gives way to the steep scarp, or steady slope down to the river 

 bed, — the varying conditions offer many other trees a home, whose 

 striking forms have a strong individuality of their own, such as the 

 Bamboo, the Cotton-tree (Bombax malabarzcum), the red-tinted Bdkl 1 

 (Anogeissus latifolia), and the great thorny jungles (Acacia) of the 

 alluvial flats and dry river-beds. They harmonise well with the ever- 

 changing panorama of winding river-bed, of naked ochre-tinted cliffs 

 and deep pools, of softly-swelling slopes, or of jagged mural scarps 

 rising one behind the other. Sometimes in wandering through this 

 region a deep gorge is reached with bare rock below and festoons of 

 tangled creepers and shrubs above, shutting out the sky. And when, 

 after leaving this array of miniature crags, peaks, and precipices, 

 the dun itself is entered, the sight is rested as it falls on the gently 

 undulating plain, which, expanding in all directions in a sea of Sal 

 forest, dies away at its margin into a thousand slightly-inclined 

 slopes, ultimately steepening and ending either in the serrated 

 peaks of the Siwalik ridge to the south, or in the mountain-foot of 

 the greater Himalaya to the north. 



The Sub-Himalayan zone is visited by a heavy monsoon, during 



Climate: June, July, and August, and has an annual rain- 



Govemment forest. f a u exceeding 60 inches ; it therefore forms part 



of a climatic zone which is one with that of Bengal and the coast of 



Burma. In consequence of these favourable conditions, it supports 



dense forests, rich in a few species of very valuable trees. Nearly all 



1 A chaor is a level or gently sloping bit of ground, generally elevated above the 

 neighbouring drainage lines. 



( 66 ) 



