In former volumes allusion has been made to the Bhagiratti Forests on the east side of the Ganges in Tehri-Garhwal State, which had been leased from the Raja (I, 503-504; II, 299). In order to open out these forests a road was commenced up the Bhagiratti Valley by O'Callaghan (II, 306, 312). These forests were surveyed by Grant in 1869, Pearson having visited them the previous year (II, 333-335). In 1869-70 the road construction was under a Public Works Engineer, but the Department subsequently took over charge and the credit for the great success achieved is due to Greig, who was responsible, both as Deputy Conservator and Conservator, for the great development in exploitation facilities introduced in this valley and in Jaunsar. The construction of the Bhagiratti road was a gigantic task, involving the erection of suspension bridges, one of which, over the Byramghati, had a span of 450 feet suspended 450 feet above the river. This road provided an easy passage to the flocks of pilgrims who annually travelled up to visit the Gaumukh, one of the most sacred spots in India. Eardley Wilmot, who was subsequently in charge, says the deodar forests were very fine. "I remember having a deodar felled which yielded, with wasteful conversion, 400 narrow gauge sleepers." On the expiry of the first period of the lease the Raja refused to include the Bhagiratti Forest and road in the renewed lease. The construction of the road had interfered to some extent with the lucrative business the hillmen had made out of the pilgrims in assisting them up the rude mountain paths and precipices in the pre-road times!

In order to extract the sleepers from the Jaunsar Forests an elaborate system of slides was being constructed and in the Conservator's (G. Greig) Annual Report for 1871-2 a description of this work is given which is worth quoting. These slides and sledgeway were the first thing of the kind ever built on this scale in India, and were larger than European examples of a similar type. Captain Lillingston was in charge for a short time before his death, due to his pony slipping from the road whilst on the way from Deoban to the Tons. Greig wrote: "The Tons deodar sleeper works are going on well; 7486 10-foot sleepers were delivered at Delhi during the year, and 14,321 6-foot sleepers at Agra. . . . In the Dartmeer Forest 17,404 logs were cut, and rolled either into or close to the river. In the Lambertach Forest 128,000 sleepers have been sawn, of which 20,000 have been carried to and stacked at the head of the slide, and 25,000 at the head of the tramway. The tramway

(sledgeway), which is a little over 1 mile in length, is in working order, and sleepers are being taken along it daily; but the slide was not quite finished. This slide is 6300 feet long, almost perfectly straight, from 10 to 11 inches broad, and has a gradient of from I in 7 to 1 in 10. It will shoot the sleepers into the Pabur River, about 3 miles above its junction with the Tons. In the Mundhole Forest there are 120,000 sleepers sawn, of which 70,000 have been carried to spots convenient to the head of the canal (wet) slide. This slide differs considerably from the Lambertach one; it runs down a water-course, crossing and recrossing according to the features of the banks, and is 4 miles and 250 feet long. It is of a much more easy gradient, varying from 1 in 5 to 1 in 100, and a good flow of water, supplied by means of wooden troughs leading from the stream, is always kept running down it. The original design was the late Captain Lillingston's idea: he had intended to construct the slide entirely of blocks of deodar of such a size as to be hereafter convertible into two narrowgauge sleepers." Lillingston's idea did not work in practice, firstly, because the slide was too broad and jams occurred and, secondly, because since the bottom was made of two pieces of wood the slide leaked so badly that it quickly dried, resulting in heavy breakage of sleepers. About half a mile had been constructed on this plan by Lillingston and a short piece added after his death. The rest, however, was constructed with scantlings of Pinus longifolia, 14 feet by 12 inches by 5 inches, specially sawn on the spot, there being plenty of trees on the slopes. The more dangerous parts of the upper length were relaid. Greig continues: "The whole slide was laid down by the end of April. During May and June we had many experimental trials, and each one showed us some defect, and it was not actually put into real working order until the end of June. . . . From the foot of the slide to the bank above the river, a wooden tramway 2 feet gauge and 1 miles in length has been constructed along a plateau which is not of sufficient downward slope fora slide. The tramway terminates at a precipitous bank 800 feet above the Tons River. From the top of this bank a wooden trough has been made, which shoots the sleepers right into the Tons. The trough is constructed of the same sized timbers and on the same principle as the canal slide, but the joints had to be more securely fastened."

Owing to the steepness of the incline of the Lambertach slide it gave considerable trouble. Eventually the sides were

cut down and the top boarded in after which it worked admirably.

This method of extracting sleepers from these hills persisted through the period dealt with here and the work formed one of the "show" sights in this part of the Himalaya. The actual Tons sleepers work referred to above came to an end in 1874-5, when all work in the forest for the railway contract was completed, although many of the sleepers then being prepared would not reach the railway before 1875-6. The sleepers put into the Tons River floated down to the Dun, where they were caught by a boom and made into rafts for their further journey (vide II, Plates facing pp. 520, 524). Up to 31st March, 1874, from the commencement, 396,219 sleepers of different sizes had been cut in these forests and delivered to the Railway, and 89,120 remained in stock ; the price realized was Rs.9,88,180. The expenditure came to about Rs.7,69,209, leaving a balance in favour of the works of Rs.2,18,970.

These sleeper works were subsequently resumed in this region, and the excess deodar growing stock removed under the lease in parts of Tehri Garhwal throughout the remainder of the century.

The Chakrata Barracks were being built in 1870-71 and deodar scantlings and spruce bullees (poles) were being supplied, also Pinus longifolia timber. The officers of the 55th Regiment were also building houses and a sum was outstanding against them which, says an Annual Report, "will be paid when they receive from Government the advance promised to enable them to build."

Between December, 1874, and March, 1875, Brandis carried out an inspection of the forests of the North-West Provinces and a more detailed visit was made by him in the early months of 1881. There were then three Circles-the Oudh, Central and School Circles, the two latter in the North-West Provinces. At the close of the 1881 inspection Brandis drew up a voluminous Report, entitled "Suggestions regarding Forest Administration in the North-West Provinces and Oudh (1882)," in which he included the results of the 1874-5 visit. The observations and suggestions in this Report having reference to Oudh will be alluded to in the next chapter.

In the Province under consideration Brandis marched, in 1881, through some of the forests in the Terai District, under Mr. J. C. Macdonald, and then joined Mr. G. Greig, Conservator

of the Central Circle. With him he examined the Kumaun Forests, meeting Sir Henry Ramsay, who was still Commissioner of Kumaun (vide II, p. 325). Brandis then marched through Garhwal, seeing the Patli Dun and Kotri Dun Forests (II, Chap. IX) and entered the recently formed Ganges Division, which comprised the submontane forests of the Garhwal District near the Ganges as well as the Chandi Forest in the Bijnor District. On crossing the Ganges to Hardwar, Brandis was met by Schlich, Conservator of Forests of the Punjab, and by Major F. Bailey, R.E., the Director of the Forest School, Dehra Dun. An inspection was made of the Patri Forest, south of Hardwar, the outer Siwalik Forests (Saharanpur District) and the Dehra Dun Forests. After a stay at Dehra the party proceeded to Chakrata in the Himalaya and visited the hill forests of the Jaunsar and Tons Divisions, arriving at Roru in the Pabar Valley in the middle of May, nearly four months after the start in Oudh. In his "Suggestions" Brandis gives a clear picture of the position of the forests and their administration at this period.

It will be remembered that in 1868-9 Pearson, the first Conservator of Forests in the North-West Provinces, had made a detailed inspection of the forests. Brandis classified these forests into two classes-the forests on the higher hills of the Himalaya in the Jaunsar and Tons Divisions and the submontane and Siwalik Forests. The hill forests included those on the Tons River and its affluents, the forests on the Jumna and Bhagiratti Rivers in the Tehri State and the forests in the vicinity of the stations of Ranikhet and Naini Tal. The object of undertaking the systematic management of these hill forests was, says Brandis, twofold. To provide a permanent supply of timber, chiefly deodar, to the plains (which was floated down the Ganges and Jumna Rivers) and to furnish a permanent supply of timber and firewood to the stations of Chakrata, Ranikhet and Naini Tal. There was also the further object of providing for a permanent supply of wood and other forest produce to the agricultural population in the vicinity of the forests, although at that period, owing to the scanty population in the hills, this object was of secondary importance. For export to the plains deodar was the only wood for which there was a steady and large demand on the above-mentioned rivers. The demand for Pinus longifolia, although increasing, was limited. The local demands of the three hill stations mentioned were provided for by a large

variety of woods, those of chief importance being deodar, spruce, silver fir, P. longifolia and the three oaks (Quercus incana, dilatata and semecarpifolia). The sylvicultural study of all these species was of very great importance. To the extensive submontane and Siwalik Forests (under the Forest Department) Brandis added the forests of the Terai District of the Kumaun Division. These forests were not under the Forest Department and had not been notified as Reserves under the Act. Brandis said that they had been demarcated and were sufficiently protected, which may have been true at the time, but was not so subsequently. They then consisted of the eight blocks: Makonia, Kilauli, Sarapu, Kukrala, Dimri, Kilpuri, Debipura and Biheri, total area 141 square miles. Brandis also mentioned the Iron Company's grant, now estimated at 205 square miles, but alluded to by Pearson as "about 400 square miles" (II, p. 323). This grant separated the two great subdivisions of the Kumaun Forest Belt, the Eastern and Western Divisions. Most of the timber from the Western Kumaun Forests was taken to Ramnagar, where the Department had a depot, that from Eastern Kumaun went to Pilibhit and Bareilly. In his Report Brandis deals with suggestions for the future organization, fellings, etc., of the forests of the Province, which were divided into the Kumaun, Garhwal and Ganges Divisions of the Central Circle, and the Saharanpur, Jaunsar and Tons Divisions of the School Circle. The other Divisions of the Province were the Jhansi, Lalitpur, Naini Tal and Ranikhet.

The Kumaun Forests.-It was proposed to divide the Kumaun Forests into three Working Circles under a Working Plan regulating the felling of sâl only, the other associated species being of less importance. In Eastern Kumaun two Working Circles were to be formed-one comprising the hills drained by the Nindhaur and Kalauni Rivers and the other by the forests outside the hills; the third Working Circle would be formed by the forests of Western Kumaun.

A valuation survey of the forests on the hills drained by the Nindhaur River was commenced in January, 1881, under the charge of Mr. E. P. Dansey, Assistant Conservator. The survey of eleven blocks in the lower or western portion of the valley had been completed, two of which were excluded from the valuation. The forests of this Working Circle measured about 300 square miles, of which one-half (96,000 acres) were considered to be workable; of this area 13,089 acres had been