COLOMBO JETTY AND GRAND ORIENTAL HOTEL,

CHAPTER VI.

FORESTRY.

F. LEWIS, F.L.S., Assistant Conservator of Forests, Ceylon,

TT of the Island’s total area of 25,365 square
miles—the natural features have been described
in the introductory chapter—the extent of
uncultivated land is about 20,000, but it must
not be supposed that this vast extent is com.
posed of forest, as enormous stretches are
covered with grass land, locally known as {alawas and
patanas, besides huge expanses of scrub bush. The actual
extent of true forest in Ceylon is probably hardly one-half
of its uncultivated area, and this is not in a connected form
or situated in one particular part of the country, but is
composed of masses scattered all through the Island.
Up to the end of 1901, for purposes of forest administra.
tion, 103 forests were proclaimed as reserved or specially
protected, giving an acreage of 713,413 acres, or nearly 1,115
Square miles, or about one-eighteenth of the estimated uncultivated
 area of the country.
The peculiar situation of the Island and extreme variation
of rainfall and altitude within its comparatively small limits
produce remarkable differences in the forest vegetation.