EUCALYPTUS TREES. 27 
As a further evidence of the imperative necessity 
of finding wood by a mode different to the present 
means of obtaining it I translate and condense a por- 
tion of a letter from an accomplished mining engi- 
neer at Clunes (Wolfgang Mueller, Esq.), a spot which 
once boasted of forest scenery: The fuel required 
for the steam - engines alone at the mines of Clunes 
amounts, at the present rate of working, to not less 
than one million three hundred and eight thousand 
cubic feet annually. The nearest forest is ten miles dis- 
tant ; the price per cord ( of one hundred and twenty- 
eight cubic feet) is27s. The cost of transit of the above 
engine-fuel amounts alone to, approximately, £10,000 
pro anno ; the whole expenditure being about £15,000. 
The round wood, for subterranean use in the mines of 
Clunes, now annually comes to one hundred and sixty 
thousand running feet, ata value of £2,400; and this 
round, wood cannot now be obtained nearer than from 
twenty to twenty-five miles. The sawn and split 
timber for the Clunes mines has to be carried quite 
as far, adding about £700 to the wood expenses for 
these mines, the total being probably not less than 
£20,000 annually ! No allowance is, however, made 
in these calculations for the domestic fuel of the min- 
ers. The price of wood is trebled already by cart- 
age at that spot. 
No natural local upgrowth, even if not destroyed by 
fire or traffic, I am confident can come up to this rate 
of consumption ; and it is evident that annually the 
~price for wood at these mining works must increase ; 
for many mine this may become a question alto- 
gether as to the possibility of its further remunera- 
tive working. The mining operations, moreover, are 
