used annually for various building purposes, so that it does 
not seem unreasonable to conclude that in one shape or an- 
other wood, equivalent to the produce of between 9,000 and 
10,000 acres is cut every year; land so cleared, must be con- 
sidered as permanently abstracted from forest land. 
Now if forests are to be kept up, this enormous amount of 
clearing must be stopped altogether, and those who advocate 
the measure must be prepared not only to pay indemnities to 
the proprietors of the forest lands, but also to throw upon 
the colony the immense expense of substituting other fuel, 
and other timber for building purposes, in place of the fuel 
and timber now used. 
But even when left to themselves, and when no active steps 
are taken for their destruction, there seems to be a gi’adual 
decay of the forests, which it is difficult to explain. The 
number of dead trees in some of the most important forests 
is very great. It may be that the soil is exhausted of the 
nourishment required by that particular description of tree, 
and that some other species of vegetation may hereafter spring 
up, to take the place of the dead trees, but at present there 
are no signs of such a process having commenced. A parti- 
cular kind of long grass is the chief species of vegetation which 
at present flourishes near the dead trees. 
In fact it seems certain that everything deserving of the 
name of <x forest will sooner or later disappear from Mauri- 
tius, either by the operation of natural causes, or to supply 
the pressing wants of the inhabitants. 
The condition of Mauritius, in regard to the maintenance 
of forests exhibits an exceptional case, on account of the un- 
usually large proportion which the number of inhabitants 
bears to the extent of the Island. The population of Great 
Britain and Ireland, (by no means thinly peopled countries), 
amounts to 233 to the square mile, whereas in Mauritius we 
have about 354 souls to the square mile, or more than one 
half as much again as in England. In France the population 
is only 175 to the square mile, or less than half that of Mau- 
ritius. 
Our case therefore is more nearly assimilated to that of a 
collection of villages, than to that of a rural district, and ac- 
