1849.] 



exercised hy Trees on Climate, 



471 



and that the air when loaded with fogs and vapours and even with 

 copious dews, can alone advance a considerable and never failing 

 resource. Persons that are much abroad and travel early and late, 

 such as shepherds, fishermen, &c. can tell what prodigious fogs pre- 

 vail in the night on elevated downs, even in the hottest parts of 

 summer, and how much the surfaces of things are drenched by those 

 swimming vapours, though, to the senses, all the while, little mois- 

 ture seems to fall." 



In Coorg and the hill country, it is impossible to move off the 

 road when walking early and before the sun has dried the ground, 

 the dews are so heavy, and the dripping from the trees so wetting, 

 yet the roads are perfectly dry. Some crops in India, as the cooltie, 

 depend entirely on the fogs for sufficient moisture to mature a crop. 



In paras. 31 and 32 of General Cullen's report, he says, " In the 

 forests of this coast and above the ghauts in the western parts of 

 Mysore, Wynaad and Coorg, the trees are I believe every where nearly 

 destitute of leaves, during the early part of the year, the driest and 

 the hottest season, so that even in forest tracts, the earth is at that 

 period exposed to nearly the full force of the sun's rays." 



" The long grass and low jungle is also generally burnt down in 

 these months, and the general heat and dryness in passing through 

 such tracts are frequently intolerable. The almost entire absence of 

 moisture and springs in forest tracts in the dry season is well known." 



And at para. 34 he says, *' The forests in this quarter therefore, 

 whatever beneficial effects they may have during the rains or cooler 

 portions of the year, would seem to exercise but little influence on 

 the general climate, or in the preservation of moisture, at the very 

 season when it is most required." General Cullen's recollection of 

 these tracts is not in accordance with my experience of them. I 

 was in the north of Coorg in December last and in Munzerabad 

 in January of this year, and in January, 1847, it is true that the grass 

 is generally fired, but very few of the trees are deciduous and even 

 at that dry season of the year most of the deciduous trees were in 

 full blossom, and preparing to throw out their spring crop of leaves. 

 It is in the hottest season of the year, March and April, that the 

 mangoe throws out its blossoms and young leaves, maturing its 

 fruit in June ; from what source does it derive the requisite mois- 

 ture, to carry on the process of maturing its crop ? In the months I 



