30 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



ries devastated the forests, by the cutting and burning of 

 their best timber to form ashes to manure their wretched fields 

 of half-wild grain. This was itself almost sufficient to have 

 proved the ruin of the forests, but other causes had not been 

 absent. The most valuable timbers for the railway and other 

 useful purposes are the Teak and the Sal ; indeed no others 

 have been found to be really lasting when subjected to the 

 great and sudden variations of an Indian climate. The Teak 

 tree is perhaps the most generally useful in the whole world. 

 In combined strength, lightness, elasticity, and endurance 

 there is none to compare with it. At the present day its 

 uses cover a wider range than those of any other timber, 

 from the handle of an axe in its native forests to the backing 

 of an ironclad in the navy of England. But it is unfor- 

 tunate also that it is the easiest of all timbers to fell, and 

 makes better firewood and charcoal than any other. It is 

 little wonder, then, that on it almost exclusively, where 

 found, had fallen the weight of the people's requirements, 

 ever since the country was first populated by civilised tribes. 

 I have already said that it is a most difficult tree to repro- 

 duce, the seeds being exposed to the extremities of clanger 

 before they have the opportunity to germinate. The seed- 

 lings also, with their great dried leaves like so many sheets 

 of tinder, are more exposed to injury by fire than those of 

 any other tree. Thus the Teak had everywhere been merci- 

 lessly cut down, and had to struggle with the most adverse 

 circumstances to maintain a footing at all. Over great tracts, 

 where it probably once grew, it has been utterly exterminated, 

 giving place to a " shoddy aristocracy " of such worthless 

 species as the Boswellia, which no one would dream of cut- 

 ting, and on which nature has bestowed all the indestructible 

 vitality of a weed. The Teak has but one rare and valuable 



