62 



32. Now, as regards the grasses to which I have 

 Je b fer g red ss t e o 3 alluded in the first part of this pamphlet as 

 page 33. ''- being suitable for paper manufacture, all that 

 remains here for me to do is to quote from two 

 recognized authorities in corroboration of my views. 

 Referring to Saccharum munja (at paragraph 33 of 

 his work, already quoted), Dr. Royle writes : " It 

 is possessed of great tenacity, as is evident from two- 

 inch ropes, of fifty fathoms in length, made from its 

 fibre, being sufficient for dragging their largest (or 

 1200 maund*) boats up the Indus, and consequently 

 against stream." Baboo Hem Chunder Ker, to whose 

 report I have already referred (at paragraph 35), 

 tells us : " The leaves of the Saccharum munja are 

 twisted into ropes of great strength. The plant 

 grows abundantly in almost every part of Upper 

 India, and has been from a very remote period of 

 antiquity used by the Hindus for making cords. It 

 is a common weed in most parts of Bengal also. Its 

 fibre can be exported at a small cost, and to any 

 extent desirable. S. sara is a rank weed like the 

 last. Its leaves are made into ropes, which are very 

 strong and durable, even when exposed to the action 

 of water. Like the S. munja, this reed is also con- 

 sidered by Dr. Royle to be suitable for paper-making." 

 The forests in Sind (north of Sewan) are fronted to 

 a depth of half-a-mile to one mile with both these 

 grasses, and it is in this province chiefly that the 

 forests are so overrun with them as to 'necessitate the 



* A maund is equal, in round numbers, to 80 Ibs, 



