EUCALYPTUS TREES. 67 



deferred. It may certainly be argued that in the 

 eastern portion and some of the southern parts of the 

 Victorian territory abundance of forests still exist — 

 enough to supply all wants for many years to come. 

 This is perfectly true in the abstract ; but how does 

 this argument apply, when we well know that such 

 timber occurs in secluded places, mostly on high and 

 broken ranges, without roads. And even if the latter 

 were constructed — which certainly will be required 

 gradually — at what price can such timber be conveyed 

 to the required distance ? Suppose, however, that 

 all these diflaculties had been overcome, whence are 

 we to obtain the deals of northern Pines, the boards 

 of the Red Cedar, and the almost endless kinds of 

 other woods which future artisans will require ? For, 

 assuredly, neither Europe nor North America can 

 sustain the heavy call on their indigenous and even 

 planted forests for an indefinite period to come. Trop- 

 ical woods might for a time be brought from the jun- 

 gles of three continents, but certainly not at a small 

 cost. Besides, tropical trees, as a rule, are not gre- 

 garious ; we cannot judge beforehand, in every in- 

 stance, of their durability and other qualities ; we 

 cannot recognize their extraordinary variety of sorts 

 specifically from mere inspection of the logs, and we 

 should find ourselves soon surrounded by endless dif- 

 ficulties and perplexities were we to depend on such 

 resources alone. Would it not be far wiser timely to 

 create independent resources of our own, for which 

 we have really such great facility ? With equal ear- 

 nestness another aspect of the timber question, as con- 

 cerning our national economy, forces itself on our 

 reflection. The inhabitable space of the globe is no^ 



