the necessity which existed of obtaining a detailed knowledge of what the forests contained before there would be any possibility of forming an opinion as to the extent they could be worked and the amount of timber which they could provide. Also that the ruinous and unchecked system of exploitation in force, combined with unchecked grazing and firing, must be checked. He recognised that the small beginnings made in this direction were useful, but in the absence of all knowledge of the contents of the forests the measures introduced would be of little real use. He advised the appointment of some Forest Surveyors, whose duties should be to visit all the forest areas and draw up statements as to their position, area, contents and accessibility for working, the information to be obtained from both the hill and plains (Terai) forests. Webber was appointed as one of these officers, and commenced work towards the end of 1864, and his exploration of the hill forests will be dealt with here. On being appointed Forest Surveyor in the North-West Provinces, Webber received instructions to visit in order the several localities wherever forests existed, and survey and map out their boundaries and areas, giving careful details of the timber growing upon them, and to report on the quality of the timber and the character of the land it grew upon. The scale of the maps was one inch to the mile, and schedules were attached to each sheet of twelve miles square, giving average number of first, second, third and fourth class trees per acre growing in the forests, only those species of trees which had a commercial value as timber for construction being taken into account, those of no economic value to be omitted. Webber first explored the hill forests of Kumaun and Garhwal, which extended over an area of 15,000 square miles of actual forest situated all over the division, the latter being 150 miles long by 100 broad, bounded on the south-west by the plains of the Bhabar, and on the north-east by the snowy summits of the Himalaya and Tibet, on the south-east by Nepal, and on the north-west by the Alaknanda, a principal branch of the Ganges. The people were peaceful, and at this time not numerous. The country to be explored was practically unknown for the greater part to Europeans. The Forest Surveyor received his instructions from the Secretary, Public Works Department, every six months, and the reports and maps were sent in through the Commissioner, who was ex officio Conservator of Forests (up to 1868, when a Forest Department with its own Conservator was inaugurated in the North-West Provinces). The mapping work and reports were undertaken at Naini Tal during the rains. This forest survey had no connection with the regular survey of the country, which had already been undertaken by the Trigonometrical Survey officers; their maps were available, and were used as the basis of the forest survey. The sheets of twelve miles by twelve were taken on an enlarged scale from the map, and carried in the form of a book, upon which the positions of ridges and spurs were drawn in with the assistance of the prismatic compass and protractor. The forests were delineated, and areas occupied by forest calculated. In each forest the average of the number of trees per acre was taken, by running a line through the forest with a 66-foot chain. The contents of each square chain were counted by the operators. As a result of many observations Webber says that "the general average of a measurable forest was thirty trees per acre, of which about seven were first class or over 6 feet in girth and usually there was an equal proportion of second and third class trees of 4 feet and 2 feet girth, and a growth of fourth class trees and saplings under 2 feet, fairly scattered through the forest, besides innumerable seedlings not counted." "This was the normal condition of the natural forest, when, as the hoary and mature trees fell from storm or old age, there were generally younger ages ready to take the places of the dead ones." Webber says that he saw very few instances of damage by fire in the hill forests, this being probably due to the paucity of the population at that time. He records finding "where the soil is deep on the less precipitous slopes, magnificent specimens of giant patriarchs of immense age, measuring 30 and 40 feet in girth, with stems like pillars towering to the skies; especially among the deodars, which attain a height of 200 feet and more surrounded by progeny of all ages grouped together in a most picturesque manner. No wonder that the natives reverence this noble cedar as the sacred tree of God (the word deodar is Hindustani, deo, god; dar, tree-God's tree). Its timber is most durable and sweet-scented, and its grain so straight that in some places they split the great logs into boards to construct their temples, and into shingles for roofing, which stand the changes of climate for centuries without any sign of decay." The sacred Ganges rises in Garhwal, its principal branches being the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda, which issue under the latter name (though usually termed the Ganges by Europeans) from the hills at Hardwar in the Siwaliks. The most sacred place in Hindu mythology is Badrinath, where is the head source of Ganga, in the group of lofty peaks known as Gangotri in Garhwal. The adjoining group of the sacred Nanda is in Kumaun, separated only by the River Alaknanda. Here are five lofty peaks rivalling the four of Badrinath, all over 22,000 feet in height, the giant summit of Nanda Devi, 25,749 feet, dominating the group. Webber's first expedition was undertaken to explore the slopes of this vast labyrinth of mountains, intersected by valleys of immense depth and filled with huge glaciers, and map out the forests and ascertain the amounts of timber they contained. The forests of Kumaun and Garhwal, he reported, contained four different oaks, chestnuts, sycamores, horsechestnuts, as also the Pinus excelsa, or blue pine, growing to a great size; the silver fir (Abies Webbiana) growing on the northern slopes up to 12,000 feet, forming dark thick forests, and Spruce (Picea morinda), in which the stems were 150 to 200 feet in height. On the lower and northern slopes the forests consisted of the chir pine (Pinus longifolia). In some of the ranges near Nepal he records the Cypress (Cupressus torulosa), growing only on sunny slopes over 7000 feet, in isolated localities, "one of which is at Naini Tal, where some noble trees were growing under China Pahar 150 feet high, with clean stems to near the top. I measured an old cypress at the back of China 37 feet in girth, and I have measured several deodar trees of 40 feet." The Forest Surveyor concludes these interesting remarks as follows: "These are the principal timber trees which are included in the list of those reserved by the Forest Department as of value for timber for construction. The jungles, however, contain hundreds of other beautiful and excellent hardwood trees, as well as various species of oaks and sycamores, walnut and the elmlike Celtis australis, rhododendrons (of which I have measured stems 15 feet in girth of various kinds) besides, lower down, the tropical sâl and saj (Terminalia tomentosa); while high up near the snow are birch and juniper. Box is also found of good thickness in some of the hills. In some regions the finest forests are so remote from roads that their value is much diminished. The object of the survey was to determine the position of all the forests, and ascertain what extent existed within reasonable distance of land and water carriage. If the river flowing down the adjoining valley were large enough to float down logs to the plains, it might then be feasible to construct roads or timber slides to transport the logs to the water, as in Switzerland and the Black Forest. This had been tried in the deodar forests of the Punjab, mostly in territories belonging to rajahs. But the great roaring torrents of the Sutlej and its tributaries, rushing in the rainy season through rocky defiles, had been found so destructive to the timber floated down that much loss was occasioned. All such features had to be reported on and sites selected for roads and saw mills." It will be observed that the lines laid down for investigation by Webber and his staff were very thorough. Unfortunately in his book, The Forests of Upper India, the author confines himself for the most part to descriptions of the marches he undertook, with two journeys into the treeless region of Tibet, and to sporting anecdotes. He has little to say of the actual work he carried out in the North-West Provinces, nor does he give adequate details of the condition of the different forests he visited. His book does not, therefore, in spite of the title form the masterly record of the areas, as they existed at this time, which is to be found in Forsyth's pages. Nor are his official Reports to be compared with those drawn up by Cleghorn for the Punjab Himalaya. But it is clear from Webber's Reports that the Kumaun hill forests were unworked at this period. Many were quite inaccessible, and had never been visited by Europeans. The inhabitants of the plains never went up into the hills, save those only who make the pilgrimage to Badrinath and the Cow's Mouth, where the sacred Ganges issues from a cavern up amongst the snows and glaciers; and the population of the hills was very small. After visiting the upper forests, Webber inspected the extensive area of forests in the Pindar River valley, from the glacier down to the junction with the Alaknanda. After leaving the snow-capped mountains the valley opens out lower down, the southern side sloping back with less precipitous hills, which were covered with extensive forests up to their summits. These slopes, Webber remarked, would be suitable for sliding timber down with a view to floating in rafts to the plains. The business required a knowledge of timber transport work, but he considered it would be possible to train the |