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there were little grooves in the banks of the cutting. I asked, “What 
they were?” and was told, “ They were produced by rain.” I then asked, 
“ What about that vegetation ?” and the reply was, “ That has all come since 
the cutting of the canal.” Even the small accession of moisture caused by the 
canal has brought some rain into the desert ; and so it would be in India if, 
instead of destroying the vegetation, they were to preserve it ; if, instead of 
cutting down the trees and burning them as they do for fuel for the railway- 
engines, they preserved them, and increased the growth and development of 
the forests, the tendency would be to cool down the climate and temper it. 
A most remarkable example of this is seen in the case of the Terai, which 
runs along the outer range of the Himalaya chain. There is a dense belt of 
forest there, which varies from fifteen to twenty and even thirty miles in 
breadth, though sometimes it is very much less ; but the ground is 
always moist, and produces a rank and luxurious vegetation. I believe 
they could do nothing worse than take away that belt of forest, 
because, although elsewhere the air is so dry and hot that it is like a 
furnace, and everything is dried up, as you approach this district of vegetation 
the air is tempered and becomes cool and moist. But it is not for this 
reason alone that I would preserve it. Its importance is very great from 
another point of view. I feel that here I am perhaps trenching on a subject 
that has to do with engineering, and on which my friend General Maclagan 
could give better information than I could offer ; but I would say, with refe- 
rence to this dense vegetation which grows on the very margin of this chain 
of mountains, that not only does it temper the air and bring a vast quantity 
of moisture which would not otherwise be there, but it also regulates the 
moisture that trickles down the hills ; and, were it not for the trees and 
vegetation which clothe the lower sides of the mountains, the water would 
rush down in torrents that would overwhelm the country, bridges would be 
swept away, and the district would be desolated, instead of which there is now 
an equal distribution. The result is that the water finds its way gradually to 
the level ground below, rising up in springs and producing the wide belt of 
vegetation of which I have spoken as in the Terai, which is a term meaning 
moisture, or damp ground. There are other points connected with the rain- 
fall on which I might speak the whole evening. I will not now trespass 
further on your patience except to say that I have had very great pleasure in 
listening to Mr. Bateman’s paper. 
General R.Maclagan,R.E. — I may say that my own experience enables me 
to confirm some of the remarks made by Sir Joseph Fayrer, and of the 
statements contained in the very interesting paper of Mr. Bateman. In 
some parts of India there is even a smaller amount of rainfall than has been 
mentioned. At Mocltan there is an average of 8 or 9 inches, but in the pro- 
vince of Scinde the average rainfall is little over 4 inches, a remarkable con- 
trast to the enormous rainfall that has been spoken of as taking place at 
Chirra Poonjee. A brother officer of mine, who wrote an article in one of 
the journals on the rainfall in that part of India, took the opportunity of 
saying it was scarcely worth while to talk of the inches of rain there, the 
