58 The Vegetation of the Islands of the Indus River. [No. 2", 



The Captain considered the billets that were large enough to be 

 split into two, of the Jhao, when it was " as red as beef" as the best 

 wood on the river. But his heart used to long for the wood he once 

 got when up the Jheluni river. " Cows, that's the thing for driving 

 the engines." Olea Europea, ' Cow' (Puujabee. ) 



Immense injury is done to the wood after it is collected at the 

 wood stations, by white ants, which will, in a very few days, if not 

 carefully looked after, destroy a stack, leaving a mass of mud in place 

 of the original wood. White ants will not attack the Jhao, if the 

 wood is red, to the same extent that they do the other kinds of wood. . 



The soil of the Islands varies very much. It consists nearly 

 altogether of a rich alluvial deposit at Kotree, gradually becoming 

 more sandy as we ascend the river. This change to a sandy soil is 

 very much more marked above Sukker, after which the soil really 

 seems to be all sand with no earthy matter. Owing to this change 

 in its composition as we gradually get above Kotree and approach 

 Sukker thuso massings of the Acacia Arabica that we had down 

 the river become less numerous and thinner : until at last by the 

 time we have reached the junction of the five rivers with the 

 Indus, we lose them altogether, as well as the Tamarix Indica, which 

 is now replaced by the T. dioica. Moonj gets abundant above 

 Sukker and the Islands are very much less wooded, being more 

 covered with grasses. 



I have no doubt that much of this river land which at present really 

 lies waste, might be, with a little care and management, covered with 

 trees capable of yielding both timber and firewood. We should look 

 to timber as the ultimate object ; in doing so, we obtain firewood as a 

 collateral result. In covering these islands with vegetation we aid 

 in rendering them somewhat more permanent than they are at present, 

 by the roots grasping and keeping together the soil. 



The following may be considered the history of one of these islands 

 that may have remained permanent. 



In the month of September as the river falls, a mound of sand 

 gradually appears, enlarging daily as the river becomes lower, and 

 bare and barren. But as the September winds blow, they carry clouds 

 of the seed of the Saccha/rum sponlaneum from other islands ; these 

 fall on the soil and then readily germinate. In a couple of months the 



