MANAGEMENT OF TEAK FORESTS. 25 



in fact the coufusion is endless. A steamer and a dozen 

 twenty-ton boats would put a stop to all thefts. 



The timber would be carried cheaply and expeditioilsly, 

 the river would be always clear. If the steamer only worked Steamer and 

 for three months, carrying two hundred tons at a time or 

 four thousand tons a month, the whole of the timber of 

 those forests could be carried to Beypore with the greatest 

 ease in two months. Moreover, there is, at times, a great 

 scarcity of bamboos for floating timber. Teak, green, 

 weighs over 60 Ibs. the cubic foot and averages when dry 47 

 Ibs. To leave it to dry in the forest, renders it liable to be 

 stolen, as there are many private forests, and timber-stealing 

 is very common. In 1874, when inspecting some new land, 

 I had just bought for Government from the Amrapollium 

 Rajah, I caught three elephants in the act of dragging some 

 Teak across the river in open day. It is true, they did not 

 expect me to appear in that particular part of the forest. 

 The Rajah of Nellumbore complained that the Moplahs dived 

 under his rafts, moored in front of his house, cut the lashings 

 at nights, and floated the timber away. He was advised to 

 use chains, and he did so, and lost no more timber at his 

 depot ; but on the voyage down to Beypore, he had to pay 

 Black Mail. So long as the Anamallies supplied timber to 

 the Bombay Dockyard, it was floated to Ponani by river, but 

 to send it to Beypore now, would be to compete with Nel- 

 lumbore timber. For this reason it is preferable to send it 

 to Madras where the consumption of Burma timber is very 

 great, and the price high. 



I am not aware that any of our forests require shoots or shoots, slips, 

 slips, the plan of a slip is laid down in " Reports on Forest 

 management in Europe, by Colonel Campbell Walker." On 

 visiting the Anamallies, in 1860, I was very much surprised 

 to see what was called " a slip/' it consisted of an inclined 

 road about one in two, worn into large hollows. Elephants 

 slipped the timber, when it lodged in the holes worn by 

 rain they had to lift it out again, thus the work instead of 

 being simple and easy, was very laborious and expensive. 



4 



