FORESTS IN ROCKY AND PRECIPITOUS PLACES. 21 



is known to have greatly decreased sines the arrival of Europeans. 

 Greater numbers of Indians would mean the clearing of a larger pro- 

 portion of the land and larger opportunities for the spread of the 

 pines. 



DENUDED AREAS NOT NATURALLY UNSUITED TO FORESTS. 



The districts now mo>t deficient in fore>t covering and with the 

 artificial desert conditions most intensified, are not those of broken 

 contours and steep declivities but are usually the level areas and 

 gentle slopes — the places naturally well suited to support heavy forest 

 growth. But thev are also the locations which the Indians would 

 always prefer as having the most fruitful soil and being the easie>t 

 to clear for planting. Wherever such level spots or gentle slopes in 

 denuded districts are still fertile they are highly prized by the In- 

 dians, who even build walls around them to clear the land of stones 

 and keep out the cattle. Many of these small, i-olated. walled-in 

 fields can be seen on the spurs of the hills about Salama. Agricul- 

 tural motives may also account for much of the stone inclosures and 

 terraces which cover the upper slopes of ruin-crowned mountains, 

 like that above Rabinal in central Guatemala. Unlike the regular 

 walls and courts on the summit of the mountain, these lower terraces 

 have no regular plan and appear to have been built to level the earth 

 and free it from stones. The Indians still plant these terraces with 

 corn, though the lower slopes of the mountain are now barren, like 

 much of the adjacent country. 



FORESTS IN ROCKY AND PRECIPITOUS PLACES. 



In no part of Central America do the natural conditions exclude 

 the growth of trees. Localities too remote from water or too inacces- 

 sible, rocky, or precipitous to serve any agricultural purpose are in- 

 variably supplied with forest growth. In inhabited districts where 

 there is a scarcity of lands suitable for corn planting, extremely 

 rocky and precipitous places are cleared and burned over for the sake 

 of the single crop of corn that can be grown from the little soil which 

 has accumulated in the interstices of the rocks. The reforestation 

 of such places takes place with extreme slowness, for although the 

 vegetation does not consist of grass it becomes thoroughly dried every 

 year and is likely to burn up. even without being cut. In some dis- 

 tricts, as about Xenton in the Department of Huehuetenango. Guate- 

 mala, the Indians do not take the trouble to cut the brush, but simply 

 send the fire through it and plant their corn among the dead poles, as 

 already noted among the native systems of corn culture. 



The fact that forests are still to be found in the most unfavorable 

 places shows that the rainfall is sufficient for the growth of trees 



145 



