EUCALYPTUS TREES. 23 
cognizant that we cannot think of coal-fields as inex- 
haustible, even in the richest coal countries ; and, 
although it is to be hoped that the day is very distant 
when the cheap results of colliery work will be marred 
by the much - increasing depth of the coal mines, 
or their partial exhaustion, yet we cannot altogether 
discard the idea that, so far as coals are concerned, 
we are working ona capital, however large it may 
be, without ever adding to it. In Victoria, we can 
neither augment the supply of burning material by 
peat, such as is so extensively utilized for fuel in the 
countries of the North, except we bring a very similar 
and equally useful peat from the distant and rug- 
ged heights of our Alpine mountains. 
Although science has promised us_ prophetically 
other sources for applied heat—and Imay add, motive 
power — in gases not yet within our technie reach 
or of universal application, we have, nevertheless, to 
deal with the stern realities of the day until new sci- 
entific achievements in this direction shall have been 
accomplished. At best, and looking ever so hopefully 
forward to the successes of the future, we cannot sub- 
stitute in an endless array of purposes air or coal for 
the ever-wanted living wood, even if all that concerns 
climate and health could be left out of our contempla- 
tion. As an instance, then, of our present consump- 
tion, or almost immediate requirements of wood, I 
would like to quote one or two examples. 
The able Engineer - in- chief of the Railway De- 
partment —T. Higinbotham, Esq. —has obligingly 
supplied me with the following data in reference to 
the timber at present consumed for the Government 
railway lines, This gentleman explains also what will 
