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PART I

THE EARLY HISTORY OF THE FORESTS IN INDIA

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THE FORESTS OF INDIA

CHAPTER I

GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY: ITS CLIMATE AND GEOLOGICAL FEATURES

S a preliminary to a consideration of the history of the Forests of India a brief summary of the geographical features of the country is necessary in order that the reasons for the great variations in the types of forest growth met with in different parts may be understood.

The shape of the Indian continent is usually considered to be triangular, with the Himalaya as the northern base and the sea on the other sides. Strictly speaking, however, “rhomboidal" more clearly defines the shape, a fact which was appreciated in ancient times by the great Greek geographer Strabo. The length of the north-eastern side of the rhomboid, from the head of the Bay of Bengal to the extreme north-west of Kashmir along the line of the Himalaya is about 1400 miles from Kashmir to Karachi on the north-western side is about 1200 miles; Karachi to Cape Comorin running down the coast on the Arabian Sea on the south-west side of the rhomboid is 1750 miles; and from Cape Comorin up the east coast of Madras to the mouths of the Hoogly River is another 1300 miles, washed by the Bay of Bengal. Strabo's measurements were as follows: from the sources of the Indus to the mouth of the Ganges, 16,000 stadia; from the mouth of the Ganges to Cape Comorin, 16,000; from Cape Comorin to the mouth of the Indus, 19,000; from the mouth of the Indus to its source in the mountains, 13,000. If the stadium is taken as 115 of a mile, each of these measurements is only about

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