ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 79 
been 17,110 tons in 1603 and 57,463 in 1660, 
rose during Charles II.’s reign to 103,558 tons. 
And it went on steadily increasing, and had risen 
to 413,667 tons by the end of 1788, while the sup- 
plies of oak were, on the contrary, rapidly falling. 
From 197,405 loads of timber fit for the navy in 
the New Forest in 1608, the supply sank to 19,873 
in 1707. Under more conservative treatment 
about Evelyn’s time it rose to 36,662 loads in 
1764, but by 1783 it had fallen lower than ever, 
to 19,827 loads, or not much more than one-tenth 
of what it had been less than 180 years before. 
(Percival Lewis, Historical Inquiries concerning 
Forests and Forest Laws, 1811, pp. 121, 226). 
But just as our humid insular climate has saved us 
from absolute agricultural ruin, such as would have 
been the certain consequence of excessive clearance 
of woodlands if we had a climate like that of con- 
tinental Europe, so too did our ocean communica- 
tions and our acquisitions in the East Indies save us 
from what might have been disastrous difficulties 
about insufficient supplies of oak for our ship- 
building yards. The pressure of the dockyards 
was relieved by the shipment of teakwood from 
Bombay ; and this was the commencement of the 
