THE SAL FOEESTS 305 



wards 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 dhdh, 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 com- 

 mercial transaction of the Byga in the whole year. He 

 rarely visits the low-country markets, hke 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. The timber of 

 the sal, if inferior to the teak for some purposes, such as 

 carpentry and transverse beams, is superior for others, 

 such as wheel-work and uprights, its straight, firm grain 

 giving it immense power of resistance to crushing. It is 

 almost the only timber tree of upper India, where teak 

 is imknown. The unlimited water-power of these rivers 

 will supply the means of converting it on the spot; and 

 the Narbada will form a highway for floating it to the open 

 valley. Sal will not swim by itself, until seasoned for 

 several years ; but the hiUs produce an unhmited quantity 

 of the fmest bamboos, a bundle of which tied round a log 

 will support it, and which are themselves of the highest 



