INTRODUCTORY. 31 



property, by means of which it has alone continued to sur- 

 vive at all in many places. However much it may be cut and 

 hacked, if the root only be left, it will continue to throw up 

 a second growth of shoots, which grow in the course of a 

 few years to the size of large poles. This is the sort of 

 timber which was chiefly in demand for the small native 

 houses before the introduction of our great public works ; and 

 thus, perhaps, may be explained the apathy with which the 

 native Governments witnessed the destruction of the forests 

 of large timber. A further reference to this matter will be 

 found further on. 



The Sal-tree, again, as I have explained, possesses a much 

 stronger vitality as a species than the Teak ; though from its 

 liability to heartshake, dry-rot, and boring by insects, as well 

 as its want of all power (like most resinous trees) of throwing 

 out coppice wood, the individual trees are much more perish- 

 able than the Teak. It is also not so generally useful, par- 

 ticularly for minor purposes, being hard to fell, of coarse 

 grain, and making very inferior charcoal. It, however, yields 

 a gum -resin valuable in commerce, and this alone has led to 

 a very great destruction of the Sal forests {vide p. 364). 

 Again, the Sal tracts were very inaccessible from the popu- 

 lous regions, the nearest point where any great supply could 

 be had for the railway being about 100 miles, by a bad 

 land route. This distance has up to the present time 

 proved an insurmountable obstacle to the general utilisation 

 of the Sal timber on the railway works. The supply of this 

 timber is almost inexhaustible ; and a stronger commentary 

 on the commercial value of easy communications could not be 

 found than this, that the railways have found it cheaper to im- 

 port pine sleepers from Norway, and iron wood from Australia, 

 than to carry the Sal timber growing within a hundred miles 



