104 THE HIGHLANDS OF CEXTKAL IXDIA. 



the well-known soft yellow leather — the best of all 

 materials for sporting leggings and other accoutrements. 

 The abandoned dhya clearings are speedily covered 

 again with jungle. The second growth is, however, 

 very dififerent from the virgin forest destroyed by the 

 first clearing ; being composed of a variety of low and 

 very densely-growing bamboo, and of certain thorny 

 bushes, which together form in a year or two a cover 

 almost impenetrable to ^man or beast. I have often 

 been obliged to turn back from such a jungle after 

 vainly endeavouring to force through it a powerful 

 elephant accustomed to work his way through difficult 

 cover. In such a thicket no timber tree can ever force 

 its way into daylight ; and a second growth of timber 

 on such land can never be expected if left to nature. The 

 scrub itself does not furnish fuel enousfh for a sufiicient 

 coating of ashes to please the dhya cutter ; and so the 

 latter never ag^ain returns to an old cleariuG^ while 

 untouched forest land is to be had. Now, if it be 

 considered that, for untold ages, the aboriginal in- 

 habitants have been thus devastating the forests, the 

 cause of the problem that has puzzled railway engineers 

 — name]}^ ^'hy, in a country w4th so vast an ex^^anse 

 of forest-covered land, they should yet have to send 

 to England, or Australia, or Norway for their sleepers — 

 will not be far to seek. Stand on any hill-top on the 

 Puchmurree or other high range, and look over the 

 valleys below you — the dhya clearings can be easily 

 distinguished from tree jungle — and you will see that 

 for one acre left of the latter, thousands have been 

 levelled by the axe of the Gond and Korkii. In fact I 

 can say, from an experience reaching over every teak 

 tract in these hills, that, excepting a few preserved by 



