NORTHERN CIRCARS. 117 



required. The bark should be allowed to remain, the poles 

 steeped in water, and then rubbed with oil. Topes of mango and 

 tamarind are to be seen at Chieacole, Masulipatam, Berham- 

 pur, and Eusselconda; they would be of great use to the 

 travellers along the northern road about Harripur, and in the 

 neighbourhood of Tikali. The scrubby jungle begins at Kasi- 

 buga, and extends beyond Itchapur ; but it is evident that the 

 sea-face of the mountains in this district does not produce any 

 tree vegetation which can be denominated timber. I met in a 

 Dak bungalow, Mr Clarkson, an intelligent officer of the Trigo- 

 nometrical Survey, who corroborated this statement, and pointed 

 out on the map the position of the tracts of sal forest ; I found 

 his information very correct. 



Berharnpur. — On the 12th February I reached Berhampur, 

 and had a conference with the collector, Mr Gr. S. Forbes, as to 

 the sal forests of G-umsur. It will be remembered that his prede- 

 cessor, Mr W. Knox,* " urged the propriety of some measure 

 being adopted for the due economy and preservation of the forest 

 timber of this district." 



It may be well to mention the attempts hitherto made to turn 

 these forests to account. In 1851 Mr G. Williams entered upon 

 a contract to supply railway sleepers ; this was the first effort 

 made to work the sal forests of the N. Circars. The wood was 

 found to be superior, but the contract failed. The correspond- 

 ence was published in the Madras Railway Becords of 1852. 



The late Overseer Harton felled and despatched sal-wood from 

 Cuttack to Madras, on account of the gun-carriage factory, and 

 Overseer Weldonf is now employed upon this duty in the Sum- 

 bulpur mahals. With these exceptions, - I believe that no sys- 

 tematic operations have been attempted. The following extract 

 from a minute of the late commissioner of Cuttack will explain 

 one source of failure : — " There is much difficulty in getting 

 timber of the dimensions required by the gun-carriage factory. 

 The largest trees near to the river have been removed, and the 

 rajahs do not evince a willingness to cut those in the more 



* E. M. C, 27th March 1858, par. 4, R. D. 



t Subsequently to my visit Mr Weldon was recalled, on account of 

 various difficulties he met with in fulfilling the duties entrusted to him. 



