THE SAL FORESTS. 365 



their dhy^-cultivation, the ground being afterwards occupied 

 by a dense scrub of low sal bushes springing from the stumps. 

 In addition to this, the largest trees have everywhere been 

 girdled by them to allow the gum resin of the sal (the dammer 

 of commerce) to exude. 



The dammer resin, called here dhok, is extensively used as 

 a pitch in dockyards, and for coating commercial packages. 

 It is extracted by cutting a ring of bark out of the tree three 

 or four feet from the ground, when the gum exudes in large 

 bubbles. Several half-circles are, however, equally effective, 

 and do not destroy the life of the tree, like the former method. 

 The ringing of sal trees has now been entirely prohibited 

 within our territories; but I do not think that any. more 

 economical method has as yet been substituted, the vast area 

 of sal in native states being sufficient to supply the present 

 wants of the trade. The dammer is collected, and, together 

 with lac dye, is exchanged for salt, beads, and arrow-poison, 

 brought by peripatetic traders with pack-bullocks, who 

 annually visit their wilds for the purpose. This may be said 

 to be the only commercial transaction of the Bygd, in the 

 whole year. He rarely visits the low-country markets like 

 the other tribes, and has scarcely a knowledge of coined 

 money. 



Fortunately the sal tree, unlike the teak, is possessed of a 

 most inextinguishable reproductive power, the seeds being 

 shed by every mature tree in millions, and ready to germinate 

 at once in a favourable position. The seedlings shoot rapidly 

 above the danger of jungle-fires, and grow straight and tall 

 before branching out. Many of the young forests now spring- 

 ing up in these valleys resemble more the regularly tended 

 saplings of an English plantation than self-sown trees. The 

 country has never been surveyed, and we have no accurate 



