98 THE HIGHLANDS OF CENTRAL INDIA. 



usually takes it in turn to sit up at night in all the dhya 

 clearings of the village, getting as remuneration all that he 

 kills, and a basket of grain at harvest-time besides. The 

 skins of sambar are of considerable value in the market for 

 making 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 different 

 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 power- 

 ful 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 enough for a sufficient coating of ashes 

 to please the dhya cutter; and so the latter never again 

 returns to an old clearing while untouched forest land is to 

 be had. Now, if it be considered that, for untold ages, the 

 aboriginal inhabitants have been thus devastating the forests, 

 the cause of the problem that has puzzled railway engineers 

 namely, why, in a country with so vast an expanse 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 Korku. In 



