380 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



have scarcely been drawn on for the supply of timber, 

 being distant from the Narbada some thirty or forty 

 miles, without a road capable of conveying heavy 

 timber. 1 have already remarked on the appearance 

 of the sal tree. Singly it is a little formal in outline, 

 though possessing a fine, firm aspect from its horizontal 

 branching, bright evergreen leaves like broad lance- 

 heads, and straight, tapering stem covered with gray 

 and deeply-fissured bark. Its great charm, however, 

 resides in the fresh, cool aspect of the masses and belts 

 in which it chiefly grows. 



Besides the dammer resiii of the sal, several other 

 kinds of minor forest produce are collected here, as in 

 other tracts, for sale to the traders of the plains. Some 

 of these have already been mentioned. Another is the 

 stick-lac of commerce, which is deposited by an insect 

 on the smaller twigs of several species of trees, among 

 ^vhich. Butetcfrondosa, Schleichera trijuga, and Zizy pints 

 jvjiiba are the principal. The twigs are broken ofi", and 

 sold as they stand, looking like pieces of very dark red 

 coral. About twenty pounds will be procured annually 

 from a tree, so long as any of the insects are left on it 

 to breed. But just as often as not the improvident 

 wild man will cut down the whole tree to save himself 

 the trouble of climbing. The inborn destructiveness of 

 these jungle people to trees is certainly very extra- 

 ordinary ; even where it is clearly against their own 

 interest, they cannot apparently refrain from doing 

 wanton iujury. A Gond or Byga passing along a 

 pathway will almost certainly, and apparently uncon- 

 sciously, drop his axe from the shoulder on any young 

 sapling that may be growing by its side, and almost 

 everywhere young trees so situated will be found cut 

 lialf tiirouii;h in this manner. The stick-lac is manu- 



