9 



the Zuarberg range, the top of which forms the boundary of Griqualand East. Its 

 area may be estimated at 3,500 acres. Portions of the forest have been cut off and 

 included in adjoining farms : Mr. Quicke's on the eastern side, and Mr. Clark's on the 

 western. From the foot of the forest, the ground stretches to the south in undulating plains, 

 watered by numerous streams issuing from the forest ; but as this land has been alienated 

 almost to the edge, the forest is now hemmed in between private farms, and future working 

 will have to be carried under difficulties. The forest is steep in the upper portions and 

 in some of the kloofs that take their rise there. Here and there the vegetation has 

 become stunted, and the ground poor, on account of former injudicious working. The 

 principal timber trees are : Upright and Outeniqua Yellowwood, Stinkwood, Sneezewood, 

 Camdeboo Stinkwood, Bogabog, Natal Mahogany, Assagai, Essenhout (Ekebergia 

 capensis), Popowia Caffra, Olea verrucosa, Mimusops obovata, Toddalia lanceolata, 

 Gardenia Rothmannia, Kraussia lanceolata, Clerodendron glabrum, Royena lucida, and 

 Zantlioxylum capense. Smaller trees are Halleria lucida, Cryptocarya spp. Plectronia 

 ventosa, Strychnos sp., and Burchellia capensis. 



The Ingeli must have once been a magnificent forest, perhaps equalling the 

 Gwangwane in richness. It is deplorable to see how ignorant and ruthless working has 

 contrived to ruin a large portion. The quantity of timber formerly obtained, large as it 

 was, and probably greatly exceeding that for which the Government received any 

 consideration, does not give a measure of the destruction effected. Irregular working is 

 essentially wasteful, and it has proved the curse of many South African forests ; a result 

 by no means surprising if we realise the nature of the process. The woodcutter of 

 old used to roam through the forest to choose a tree, and damaged many or even felled a 

 few before he could find one to suit his convenience. The tree selected was felled high 

 and crowned low, the finest marketable piece of timber being taken, and the rest, often 

 amounting to more, left to rot in the forest. Then, to make a sawpit, the straigh test trees, 

 in the most promising stage of growth, that could be found sufficiently near, 

 were felled and dragged together. More destruction followed, after the log had 

 been sawn : a forked tree was selected ; the forked branches cut out to make a sledge, and 

 the trunk abandoned. A slip path was next required to remove the sawn wood piled on 

 the sledge to the nearest main path, and to make it broad enough for a span of oxen 

 many young trees had to be cut. When slipping the wood down steep places, a young 

 tree was tied behind the sledge, its crown of foliage acting as a brake, and for every steep 

 portion of the path the process had to be repeated. Other young trees were also 

 cut along the path and thrown across to facilitate the slipping. When the main paths 

 became cut up or muddy, deviations involving the cleaving of more young trees were 

 freely made. Sometimes, as in the Ingeli, the main paths were made wide enough to 

 take ox-wagons into the centre of the forest. The finest trees were gradually cut out 



