182 A. G. HAMILTON. 
done to forests may be computed when it is considered that there 
are in New South Wales 11,497 miles of telegraph line, and in 
the Australian Colonies 38,082 miles. 
In timber getting, whether for building, fencing, mining, or 
fuel, the chief damage is done to forest, although of course the 
smaller plants suffer in the carting or dragging the timber away. 
The trees that are most destroyed are naturally those that 
afford the best timber for the purposes, and are different in differ- 
ent districts. But the principal of them are the various species 
of Eucalyptus. And of these perhaps none have had such havoc 
wrought among them as the ironbarks—Afucalyptus crebra, £. 
leucoxylon, E. melanophloia, EL. paniculata, and L. siderophloia, 
which are so highly valued as building timbers, for heavy beams 
in bridge and wharf construction, and for railway sleepers. In 
some districts the ironbarks have been almost exterminated, and 
from the slow growth of these trees this loss is greater than that 
caused by killing many gums which are comparatively rapid in 
growth. 
Many other species of Eucalypts have become, or are becoming 
scarce on account of their excellence as timber or fuel. In West 
Australia a vast quantity of the Jarrah—Hucalyptus marginata, 
is annually exported to other colonies and to England. In the 
closely allied genus Syncarpia, the turpentine (S. lawrifolia ) has 
become rare in many parts. Being proof against the terrible 
Teredo, it is of great value for piles in constructing wharfs and 
jetties, and consequently in the Illawarra district, where this tree 
once abounded, it is very seldom that a trunk of any size is seen, 
immense quantities having been used in constructing the many 
coal jetties along the coast from Clifton to Port Kembla. 
Another tree rapidly being extirpated is the red cedar (Cedrela 
australis). Mr. J. Ednie Brown says, “owing to its very great 
value, the indigenous forests of Cedrela australis have been largely 
worked upon, and owing entirely to inadequate regulations and 
supervision by the State, they have been to a very large extent 
