BOTANICAL INFORMATION. 91 
indicated will average from twelve to fifteen full-grown trees to the 
acre, each tree containing from three hundred to three hundred and 
fifty cubic feet of timber at the least. The reputation which the tim- 
ber of the Mora tree has obtained in the markets of England is the 
best guarantee of its quality. I believe it is a most valuable wood for 
planking, or the ceiling of war-vessels, as it splinters even less than 
oak. My own experience is that it is one of the toughest of woods. 
“ Timite (a kind of Palm, furnishing the best possible kind of thatch) 
is abundant on the spot; good water is also plentiful; good anchorage 
for large shipping at the distance of one mile or less, where vessels 
might anchor in safety at all seasons of the year. Hurricanes are un- 
known in the Gulf of Paria, and indeed it appears extraordinary that 
forests of such magnitude and value, and so easily accessible, should so 
long have escaped the axe and the saw. 
“I have brought specimens of Mora timber for your Excellency’s 
inspection. That marked No. 1 is a piece of plank taken from a fallen 
tree, which has doubtless been on the ground and exposed to weather 
some twenty years. That marked No. 2 is the cross section of a small 
tree which measured ninety fect to the first branches.—W. P." 
On the 8th of November, 1854, Governor Elliot addressed another 
most satisfactory letter to Sir George Grey, of which the following is a 
CODY soz - 
* In my despateh No. 63, dated the 9th of September last, I re- 
marked that I should visit the Mora forest which has now been ascer- 
tained to crop out on the western shores of this colony, as soon as the _ 2. 
mitigation of the epidemic enabled me to leave the seat of government, 
and I have now the honour to report that I have accomplished that 
purpose. 
“The forest comes down within three hundred yards of the beach, — 3 a 
at the mouth of a small stream, not named in Wyld's map, about five - 
miles W.S.W. of Puerto del Guapo, being the second river to the west- - 
ward of an abandoned estate called * La Paia,’ marked on the map, and | 
belonging to the Crown. ee 
“The anchorage is safe, and perfectly smooth at all seasons of the 
year, and there was eighteen feet of water, half flood (spring tides), 
within half a mile of the beach. We landed at the mouth of the 
stream, and after crossing a ridge of about thirty feet of height, and - 
hi 
