200»GE0GRAPHICAL DIVISIONS. 
21 
say, 1,600 feet and going steadily up the Himalayas to say. 10,000 feet, 
one passes from, through and into three distinct life-zones, which we 
may call tropical, subtropical and temperate ; the tropical extends 
to 2,000 feet elevation; it is marked by one period yearly of 
intense dry heat or a limited season of moist weather ; the subtropical 
covers 2,000 feet to between 5,000 and 6,000 feet and is marked 
by a greater humidity, a more even and less intense temperature, a 
less limited period of rainfall; the temperate extends above about 
6,000 feet. To accurately define the limits of the subtropical zone 
would require much elaborate detail; it commences for instance at an 
elevation of about 500 feet at the foot of the Eastern Himalayas, at 
about 2,000 feet at the foot of the Western Himalayas ; in the Milgiris 
it commences at about 2,500 feet on the Mysore plateau side but 
runs down to well under 1,000 feet on the Western Ghaut side ; a large 
part of the Deccan above 1,000 feet is tropical; the Western Ghauts 
from 600 to 2,000 feet and over are subtropical, and in this case the dry 
tropical area (as at Poona and Nasik) is at a greater elevation than the 
moist subtropical belt. The zone is of course not definable merely on 
elevation ; it is the moister more agreeable climate produced by the abun¬ 
dant rainfall falling on the slopes of moderate elevation which run up 
from the level plains to the Himalayas or to the various ranges of hills ; 
it is a zone of varied vegetation, often forest or dense jungle; it is the 
zone in which tea, coffee, rubber, and similar crops are grown, and it 
is, in India, a belt along the hills, running up the valleys, as well as 
more or less isolated patches on the hill ranges of Central India, the 
Deccan and South India. The student can get some idea of it from 
the 2,000 feet elevation line on Eliott’s meteorological atlas of India. 
The fauna of the subtropical zone is far more varied than that of the 
tropical zone or of the temperate zone and is quite distinct. 
There are some prominent features of the tropical and subtropical 
faunae which may be very briefly discussed here. We omit any discus¬ 
sion of the temperate fauna as, except in South India, it is certainly not 
“ Indian ” but is holarctic or Indo-Chinese. The subtropical fauna is 
far more varied than the tropical; the number of species that can find 
food and can support existence in the extremely varied vegetation and 
moist equable climate of the former is far greater than those that can 
endure the intense dry heat and more limited vegetation of the latter. 
