270 FOREST LIFE AND SPORT IN INDIA 
Chenab River. No tree, perhaps, is so beautiful 
either in close-grown ranks, when it rises straight 
and branchless for many score feet towards the sky, 
or when, standing alone on some steep precipice, it 
extends enormous lateral branches, and, ceasing: 
from upward growth, displays a flattened crown 
like a soft bed of greenery. Where the deodar 
flourishes there is a climate where the white man 
may also dwell in comfort. It thrives from an 
elevation of 4,000 feet above the sea, and single 
stunted specimens may be seen even at three times 
that height. It yields timber that remains scented 
for years, resisting the attacks of insects and fungi, 
and were there sufficient for the regular supply of 
an export market, the wood might find a better 
fate than carrying the burning rails of a North- 
Western train. 
The deodar-forests of the Jhelam and of its 
affluents have been sadly ill-treated by axe, fire, 
and cattle. Looking at them from a distance, they 
give good promise of pleasant growth ; but enter 
them, and you will find scarce a sound mature tree, 
while the sad stumps of those that have been felled 
above the winter snow-level bear piteous shoots that 
will never serve any useful purpose. And yet the 
tree responds generously to any care or attention 
bestowed upon it. Its natural regeneration or 
artificial reproduction by sowing or planting is easy, 
and it is even asserted that it will grow from 
suckers. All it requests is a porous soil and a 
modicum of light and moisture. All that it insists 
on is that its young brood shall not be eaten by 
cattle or burnt by fire. Then, if these simple 
