222 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XVII. 



oil treatment for the preservation of bamboos may be said to have now passed 

 the rubicon of the " Experimental Stage " and to have reached the arena of 

 practical utility. 



To go back to the bamboos converted in 1903. Some of them were sent up 

 that year for service with the Tibet Mission. They were returned to store in 

 Calcutta about the beginning of the present year, and Mr. h. Truniger, C.I.E., 

 who was in charge of the Field Telegraph with the Mission, has stated that they 

 had fully answered expectations. Some of these returned posts were inspect- 

 ed by the writer in the yard at Calcutta towards the end of March last. Al- 

 though it was two and-a-half years since they were cut in the forests of Upper 

 India and close upon two years since they were treated with the oil, they 

 showed no trace of attacks by the Dinoderus beetle. It may be contended, and 

 justly, that throughout 1904 these posts had been at an altitude, greatly above 

 that at which either of the shot-borer beetles could, or do, live, and that they 

 were thus safe from their attacks. This was so, but the same argument does 

 not hold good when we come to consider those converted bamboos which re- 

 mained throughout the year in store in Calcutta. An inspection of these has 

 shown that they have remained equally immune from the pest. Most are aware 

 how short is the life, economically, of the bamboo after it has been cut, and 

 many know the difficulties which stand in the path of the lance, the tent-peg- 

 ging and hog-spear purveyor. The results that have attended the treatment of 

 the 9,000 bamboos in 1903 are well worthy of the consideration of these latter, 

 for on present observations it has been shown that the impregnation with the 

 oil leaves the bamboo strong and serviceable two-and-a-half years after it has 

 been cut. Arrangements have been made to keep some of these posts under 

 continuous observation with the object of ascertaining the longevity to which 

 the treatment enables them to attain. That the Telegraph Department has the 

 fullest confidence in a discovery the full credit of which chiefly belongs to it, is 

 borne out by the fact that an additional £0,000 bamboos are at the time of 

 writing being put through the treatment and converted into field telegraph 

 posts. It may be stated that the recommendations of the previous note are 

 being followed, the bamboos being first soaked in water for five days (this is 

 very necessary for reasons previously given), allowed to dry for several days, 

 and then re-soaked in the Rangoon oil (crude petroleum), this latter, as used in 

 the Workshops, having the consistency of treacle. 



That the use of the bamboo as a field telegraph and telephone post has a great 

 future before it has been proved by the Japanese in the present campaign. 

 The following note upon the subject appeared recently in the Pioneer* : "Every 

 general of brigade in the field is ' at the end of a wire ' which his divisional com- 

 mander controls and the generals of divisions are in touch by telegraph or tele- 

 phone with the corps commander. The engineers run wires after the columns 

 with marvellous rapidity. Firing is heard somewhere at the front. A detach- 

 ment of engineers emerges from head-quarters, pack ponies carrying bundles of 

 * Allahabad, Pioneer, October 24th, 1904. 



