EUCALYPTUS TREES. 63 



As a further evidence of the imperative necessity 

 of finding wood by a mode different to the present 

 means of obtaining it I translate and condense a por- 

 tion of a letter from an accomplished ihining engi- 

 neer at Clunes (Wolfgang Mueller, Esq.), a spot which 

 once boasted of forest scenery : The fuel required 

 for the steam - engines alone at the mines of Clunes 

 amounts, at the present rate of working, to not less 

 than one million three hundred and eight thousand 

 cubic feet annually. The nearest forest is ten miles dis- 

 tant ; the price per cord ( of one hundred and twenty- 

 eight cubic feet) is27s. The cost of transitof theabove 

 engine-fuel amounts alone to, approximately, £10,000 

 pro anno ; the whole expenditure being about £15,000. 

 The round wood, for subterranean use in the mines of 

 Clunes, now annually comes to one hundred and sixty 

 thousand running feet, at a value of £2,400 ; and this 

 round wood cannot now be obtained nearer__than from 

 twenty to twenty -five miles. The sawn and split 

 timber for the Clunes mines has to be carried quite 

 as far, adding about £700 to the wood expenses for 

 these mines, the total being probably not less than 

 £20,000 annually ! No allowance is, however, made 

 in these calculations for the domestic fuel of the min- 

 ers. The price of wood is trebled already by cart- 

 age at that spot. 



No natural local upgrowth, even if not destroyed by 

 fire or trafiBc, I am confident can come up to this rate 

 of consumption ; and it is evident that annually the 

 price for wood at these mining works must increase ; 

 for many mine this may become a. question alto- 

 gether as to the possibility of its further remunera- 

 tive working. The mining operations, moreover, are 



