268 DOCKYARD TIMBER. 



from this is not under 4000 candies, which is only a moiety of what 

 is cut down in these forests yearly ; the principal portion goes to 

 Cochin. The price is now Es. 8 to 10 per candy. The wood is 

 well suited for the floors and hottom planking of ships, as high 

 as the bends ; hut the fastenings, where not trenailed, must be 

 of copper, as, unlike teak, it corrodes iron rapidly. There will be 

 no difficulty in providing 3000 tons along the coast yearly. The 

 price in planks, from 25 to 30 feet long by 12 to 14 inches broad, 

 and 2\ to 3 inches thick, is from Es.120 to 170 per corge. I 

 beg also to state, that if H. M. G-ovt. would enter into a contract 

 with the sirkar for the regular purchase of say 3000 tons of angili 

 yearly, it might be worth while our undertaking the supply at, 

 Es. 14 per candy unsquared. 



Mr J. S. A. Kohlhoff, Conservator of Cochin Forests, writes : — 

 " I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter, 

 enclosing a letter from Dr Cleghorn, calling for information re- 

 garding the probable quantity of angili wood obtainable annually 

 in the Cochin forests, and beg to state in reply, ^that, owing to 

 the high rate that angili wood sells at in the market, and it being 

 considered more durable than teak for building boats, &c, such 

 great quantities of it have been annually taken away by timber- 

 merchants, that the greater portion of these forests are almost 

 exhausted of timber of this description. There is, however, a 

 tract of magnificent virgin forest, at an elevation of nearly 3000 

 feet, about 40 miles S.E. of Trichur, extending to the S. and 

 W. of the chain of hills marked Nocoon bund on the Survey 

 Map, No. 62, which have never been penetrated by timber-mer- 

 chants, where I have observed the angili growing in abundance, 

 many trees of the largest dimensions, and have been informed by 

 the kaders (or hill men), that the tree is very numerous in all the 

 sholas (or dense jungles) on those hills. I have reason to believe, 

 therefore, that this tract of forest is fully capable of yielding at 

 least 2000 candies of angili timber annually, of superior quality 

 and dimensions ; as also a good supply of poon spars for ships' 

 masts. As the rivers that traverse these forests are intersected 

 by numerous cataracts, and other natural obstacles to the floating 

 down of rafts ; and as it will not only be very expensive, but also 

 difficult, to procure a sufficient number of elephants to work this 



