Oct. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
265 
CONSUMPTION OF CHINA TEA. 
IN RUSSIA. 
We direct attention to Mr. T. N. Christie's 
letter elsewhere on this subject. He does not 
do justice to our authority which was a Com- 
mittee of leading Shan?;hai Merchants expressly 
anpointed to consider the position of China tea 
and collate all the statistics referring to its 
export. These gentlemen published a very valu- 
able Report and full tables of exports for a 
seriea of years and the figures they gave under 
"Russia" are apart from "other countries." 
Mr. Christie, as we gather, supposes that 
••Russia" in the case of the Shanghai figuies 
includes tea for, or re-exported to " Asia." 
But to what part of "Asia" would Mr. Christie 
send the 37 million lb. of brick tea which were 
sent from China in excess of the figures he 
gave tor consumption, and which tea wassliown in 
the Shanghai Report, to be mainly imported into 
Ku.ssia "via Kiachta"? Is there any part oi 
" Asia" (outside China and Tibet) using brick tea 
not under the rule or protection of Russia ? 
However, the re.idiest means of settling the 
point will be to refer Mr. Christie's Statement 
and the present letter to the Shanghai merchants 
who drew up the oHicial Report of January 
1897. The point at issue is :— Mr. Christie 
(on Russian orticial authority, of course) gave 
the total consumption of tea in Russia 
ia 1896 as follows : — 
Leaf teas 52 million lb, 
Brick and Slab teas 40 ,, ,, 
Total 92 million lb. 
The Shanghai Committee of merchants gave 
the total exports of China tea to Russia in 
1896 :— 
Green and Leaf tea 55,618,666 lb. 
Brick tea 76,949,200 „ 
132,567,866 lb. 
Of course, there must always be an allowance 
for stocks and for tea in transit, _ &c. ; and we 
only dwell on the great difference in the case of 
" brickr tea " an 1 for this reason : of the total, 
only 2,717, '283 lb. " brick " tea went via Odessa ; 
the rest apparently via Kiachta. Now we do not 
think the Shanghai Chamber would take cogni- 
zance of tea sent from one part of China to 
another ; we understand that honafidc exports 
into Russian territory are meant by the headinc; 
" Russia " in their tables. Of course, if it can 
be shown that Russia re-exported so much as 
37 million lb. of " brick " tea, there would be 
an end of the matter ; but that, as at present 
advised, we cannot consider probable. However, 
a reference will be made to Shanghai. 
••FIELD-NOTES ON THE LAND-BIRDS OF 
SABARAGAMUWA PROVINCE, CEYLON." 
BY FREDERICK LEWIS, A.C.F., CEYLOX, F.L.S. 
We have already acknowledged the receipt of 
a copy of this paper. Mr. Lewis does not cell 
us that his Notes add to the information in 
Legges' "Ceylon Birds" — to which he bears the 
highest testimony— but his introduction is 
interesting in itselt as the following extracts will 
show : — 
Briefly, the province contains very nearly tlio 
greatest range o£ altitude in Ceylon, and if Pidiirn- 
talagalla, our most lofty mountain, excluded, this 
general statement ia more nearly correct, as Sabara- 
gamuwa extends from about 50 feet above sea-level 
to close oa 7,250 feet. In this wide variation of 
altitude there is, naturally, wide variation in tempera- 
ture. Not only does the thermal variation show wide 
differences, but the rainfall is still more veriable, 
for it ranges from, roughly speaking, -10 laches 
at Erabelipitiy(' in the dry zone, in the east, tocloao 
on 300 inches in the valley of the Kuruganga, within 
the influence of Adam's Peak. 
Amid such rapid variations, both of temperature, 
altitude, and humidity, a still more changeable state 
of soil and vegetation is met with. In the hot and 
dry flat country — The Bintenna of the Sinhalese — a 
rich soil is found. In the wet steaming forests, 
within the limit of high rainfall, the soil is sandy, 
poor, and usually shallow, while up in the high 
altitudes the forest-clad hill-ranges are frequently 
broken by long open stretches of grass-or " patin.i "- 
land. The presence of these patina-lands is not 
clearly accounted for, and various theories have been 
put forward to explain why there should be a hard- 
and-fast line between high forest and short grass; 
but though some of the explanations are distinctly 
plausible, they do not answer all the conditions of 
the problem. I may here state that patina-land ia 
not the exclusive characteristic of the hill-country, 
but its occurrence has an undoubted effect on the 
distribution of the birds, and as snch forms an im- 
portant factor. Not only so, but the conditions of 
torest distribution are also to some extent affected. 
Taking the general physical conformity of Sabara- 
gamuwa as a whole, it may be regarded as very 
mountainous over two-thirds of its entire area, the 
flat country being mostly to the south and nearest 
the sea, while the hill-ranges b;gin rapidly to rise 
from Ratnapnra, the chief town of the province, both 
to the east, north, and north-west; but in making 
this general statement it must not be supposed that 
all the hill-ranges radiate from the spot mentioned. 
The great mountain-zone that divides the Sabara- 
gamuwa Province from the Geutral Province may be 
said to take its rise from the bottom of the valley 
through which the Kalani river forces its way into the 
lower plains, and rapidly rises until it reaches Adam'a 
Peak, comprising with that area the- wettest part of 
Ceylon. From Adam's Peak a continuous high altitude 
is maintained towards the east, where vast precipicea 
are found, around which some of the most curious 
variations of vegetable life occur. The hills then 
undulate a little to the north, when the Horton- 
Plain country is reached, and the basin of the Beli- 
huloya stream terminates the province-boundary to 
the east, after which the Uva Province takes up 
the continuation of the great hill zone. 
The high rainfall already referred to of necessity 
gives rise to a great number of streams that in turn 
form rivers of considerable magnitude. None of these 
rivers are, within the province under description, 
subject to tidal action, but all of them, during the 
period of high rainfall, overflow their banks, causing 
(except in the case of the Wallawey river that flows 
for the greatest part of its entire length through the 
"Bintenna," or dry zone) floods over large portions 
of the country. 
The wet forests, or areas in which the mean humi- 
dity is high, contain by far the largest proportion 
of vegetable life, and it is here that the greatest 
profusion of birds may naturally be expected to 
occur, but such is not the case as regards species. 
Numerically the individuals in the wet forests may 
be abundant, but for variety of species the dry zona 
has the preponderance in its favour. Thus, taking 
two extreme points, at Kittulgalla, where the rain- 
fall is over 200 inches, it is unusual to find more 
than five species of Hawks ; ou the other side ef 
the province, at Embelipitiye, more than a dozen 
kinds will be found in a day. 
Another very important factor in bird-distribution 
i^ the influence of the monsoons. During the south- 
west monsoon mouths, that extend from the early 
jj^rt of May to the early part of September, most of our 
migratory species are absent, Iii§h winds prevail, 
and in parts of the province, especially to the nor(l)« 
