14 FIRST REPORT ON FOREST OPERATIONS 



boats, or studding-sail booms for small craft. In addition to the 

 vast export by sea, it is estimated that two lacs are taken east- 

 ward from the Supah talook. The Malabar bamboo is much 

 smaller than that of Pegu (Bambusa gigantea), which is often 

 eight inches in diameter. 



27. Mode of Floating Timber. — It is curious to see the clever 

 management of the floaters, who are a distinct class of persons. 

 Bafts are of all sizes, usually longer than broad, and the logs 

 bound together by the stringy bark of various trees, and stout 

 branches passing through the dragholes at right angles to the 

 log. In the centre of the raft a small hut is generally made of 

 thatch, or bamboo laths covered with Palmyra leaves. In this 

 the floaters are sheltered at night. It is not usually considered 

 advisable to float logs when the river is at the fullest, as the raft 

 is apt to go over the bank and be stranded. Numerous logs may 

 be seen high and dry all along the sides, and the following year 

 the flood lifts them. At night, floats are brought to under steep 

 banks in deep water ; they are then tied to the trunk of some 

 adjoining tree. Occasionally the banks fall in, and serious acci- 

 dents occur. 



28. Introduction of Saw Machinery. — This has been much 

 under consideration. There can be no doubt that it is most de- 

 sirable to substitute the saw for the axe, especially when the 

 planks are being prepared, economising both time and labour. 

 G-reat efforts have from time to time been made, with more or 

 less success, to induce sawyers voluntarily to resort to the forests 

 for employment. As to the question of introducing circular saws 

 to the little frequented forests, the measure would be attended 

 with this difficulty, that, when the heavy machinery was con- 

 veyed to the forest dep6t as the elephant station in the Ana- 

 mallays, it must either be carried back again at great expense, 

 or left exposed to the mischievous effects of extreme damp, and 

 perhaps to injury from herds of elephants. At present, there- 

 fore, it seems more desirable that saw-pits should be for the most 

 part confined to the coast depots, and that their management be 

 left to private enterprise. 



29. Forges for Charcoal. — One of the difficult questions con- 

 nected with forest conservancy, is the making of charcoal for 



