172 THE SAVANNA OF AEH'O. 



After a while we turned off the high road into a forest 

 path, which was sound enough, the soil being one sheet 

 of poor sand and white quartz gravel, which w^ould in 

 Scotland, or even Devonshire, have carried nothing taller 

 than heath, but was here covered wdth impenetrable jungle. 

 The luxuriance of this jungle, be it remembered, must not 

 delude a stranger, as it has too many ere now, into fancying 

 that the land w^ould be profitable under cultivation. As 

 long as the soil is shaded and kept damp, it will bear an 

 abundant crop of woody fibre, wdiich, composed almost en- 

 tirely of carbon and w^ater, drains hardly any mineral con- 

 stituents from the soil. But if that jungle be once cleared 

 off, the slow and careful work of ages has been undone 

 in a moment. The burning sun bakes up everything ; and 

 the soil, having no mineral staple wdierewdth to support 

 a fresh crop if planted, is reduced to aridity and sterility 

 for years to come. Timber, therefore, I believe, and timber 

 only, is the proper crop for these poor soils, unless medicinal 

 or otherwise useful trees should be discovered hereafter 

 worth the planting. To thin out the useless timbers but 

 cautiously, for fear of letting in the sun's rays and to replace 

 them by young plants of useful timbers, is all that Govern- 

 ment can do Avith the poorer bits of these Crow^n lands, 

 beyond protecting (as it does now to the best of its powder) 

 the natural crop of Timit-leaves from w^aste and destruction. 



