266 SINDH FORESTS. 



extent nowhere else to be found, and, strange 

 to say, their arches are said to be constructed 

 without key-stones. 



Accustomed to the jungles of India, of which 

 the leaves are never shed, I was surprised on 

 arriving in Sindh in December to find a large 

 portion of the trees denuded of their foliage. 

 The babul, basser, tali, peepul, bubbur, or 

 Acacia Arabica, and the tamarisk of three kinds, 

 are the trees most commonly met with in the 

 Sindh forests. In the Upper Sindh forests the 

 Euphrates poplar is the staple tree ; but I shall 

 here lay before my readers the following ex- 

 tract from Mr N. A. Dalzel's Report to Grovern- 

 ment on the Sindh Forests, for the year ending 

 the 30th April, 1859, or rather for some por- 

 tions of that year, as follows : — 



" There are 7-i forests under the management 

 of the Forest Eanger in Sindh, including an 

 area of about 1,300,000 acres. In the Upper 

 Sindh forests the Euphrates poplar, a tree re- 

 sembling the willow both in the quality of its 

 timber and its habit of growth, is the staple 

 tree ; babul is scarce. One-half of these forests 

 consist of this tree, the other half being tamarisk 

 and gigantic grasses. In the Lower Sindh 



