in much the same state as at present. The timber is valuable, but the authority of Government is limited at present in such localities. Almost all the forest land," he added, "in the property exclusively belonging to Government had been cleared for agriculture, and in all these instances the disappearance of the forest has been permanent."

The Chota Nagpur Division.-The districts in the Chota Nagpur Division at this time were Lohardugga, Hazaribagh, Manbhum and Singbhum. In forwarding the Reports of the Deputy Commissioners of these districts the Commissioner says: "I much regret that the information generally is so vague and unsatisfactory, but in the absence of surveys it could not well be otherwise. The survey of the Hazaribagh District is indeed complete, but the Surveyor reports that he has not met in that district with forest tracts worth preserving.

There are doubtless sâl forests in Palamow which are worth preserving, and I have given instructions to the Revenue Surveyor to survey such tracts where extensive, and found in estates the property of Government, in separate blocks, with a view of their being excluded from the settlement that may be made of the cultivated lands, and I will take care that, in effecting these settlements, provision is made for their preservation, but new roads must be opened before the Palamow timber can be made much use of.

The forests in the Manbhum District all belong to ' zemindars' under the perpetual settlement; the most valuable, all those that were near great highways or rivers, have been broken into for the supply of sleepers and other demands of the railway and Department of Public Works, and the only fine timber now remaining is in the less accessible parts of the district, from which, at the present prices, or in the present state of roads and communications, the carriage of timber does not pay.

In Chota Nagpur proper there are still great stores of sâl forests, but remotely situated, and therefore not as yet utilised. They will become of importance as the more accessible forests are exhausted, and I am endeavouring to induce the 'zemindars' to take measures for preserving them.

In the hill tracts, called Sarunda, of the Singbhum District, there must be several hundred square miles of forest, chiefly sâl, which is at the disposal of Government, and there are other forests in the hill-tracts of Singbhum, also at the

disposal of Government, but all so remote that no precautionary measures, even for their preservation, are yet called for."

The author can speak at first hand on the Singbhum Forests, having joined the forest division of that name, subsequently inaugurated, some thirty years after the Commissioner wrote the above. They were still practically untouched, a railway having only recently been driven through the heart of them. During nearly two years spent as an Assistant Conservator in the division the author became intimately acquainted with the great sâl forests of the district, and spent many days examining the tracts on the Sarunda (or country of the seven hundred) Hills and incidentally in tracking bison over their hot and, in the upper parts, stony slopes. Two years later the old mature trees (the excess growing stock), many of enormous size growing on the river terraces in the valleys of this region, were cut out and converted into sleepers for a railway in the North-West Provinces, the writer being in charge of the division for a considerable portion of the period it took to accomplish this work. The Commissioner therefore wrote prophetically when he alluded to the future importance of these forests in 1864. He continued: "In the Tributary Mehals under me, still more remote, there are immense magazines of timber stored up for future years, chiefly sâl. The Chiefs would be very glad to take measures for preserving them if we could make it clear to them that it was to their advantage to do so; but all that it has appeared to me necessary as yet to direct is, that persons employed in extracting resin from the sâl trees should be required to do so by incisions not likely to prove injurious to the trees."

The following is a summary of the interesting information supplied by the different Deputy Commissioners of the four districts:

Both the Government and private forests of the Lohardugga District were said to contain valuable timber, the Deputy Commissioner being of opinion that the former might be preserved and managed with advantage, and that it was desirable that some arrangement should be made in the private forests to the same end. As the tracts had not yet been surveyed it was impossible to give the areas of the forests or any details with reference to cutting and extracting the timber. It was reputed that there were no existing roads and that water carriage was not available. No Forest Conservancy had yet been attempted, nor were any leases granted for cutting timber.

SINGBHUM SÁL FORESTS, CHOTA NAGPUR, SHOWING TYPE OF ROUGH MUD OR ROCK EXPORT ROAD
THROUGH FOREST. A BULLOCK SAGAR' LOADED WITH SLEEPERS TAKING THE DECLIVITY INTO THE
NULLA AT FULL TROT-THEIR ORDINARY PACE IS A WALK-A SLOW ONE!

Photograph by Author

1897

In Palamow the forests were leased by the "tickadars" for one year to villagers for the purpose of collecting caoutchouc. The Koel River was used to transport timber and bamboos which came from Burrasand, Oontaree, Seem and Oodeypore. The firewood used at Ranchi (the Commissioner's headquarters) and Dorunda was usually procured from the Jonah and Ootatoo Forests; the average price was 2 annas 3 pie per "maund." All villagers had the right to cut firewood and bamboos wherever they liked; the right appeared to be merely one resulting from long custom. An interesting item of information given is the following: "The mode of cultivating cotton in Palamow is, I believe, analogous to that of the 'kumri cultivation of Madras and the 'jhuming' in Eastern Bengal. Large patches of forest are cleared by burning down the trees and jungle; and Mr. Hewitt informed me that he has himself observed great injury done to forests in this way."

Major G. Hunter Thompson of the Revenue Survey informed the Deputy Commissioner of Hazaribagh that there were no forests worthy of the name in the district, although there were many scattered forest tracts; and the Deputy Commissioner added that the greater part of the district was covered more or less with jungle. The best of this was in the pergunnahs Koonda, Chungurra, Gola Juggaisur, Singhpoor, Rainpoor, Tisree and Holung. "The best trees," he said, "have nearly all been cut, and great havoc has been made during the last ten years on the forests of this district, which have supplied a vast amount of wood for the East Indian Railway, and for building purposes." This was the old story of fine forests ruined by the activities of the timber contractor, the areas being subsequently regarded by the officials as "not worth preserving." With the exception of a small tract of jungle, said to be valueless, in Koderma, the whole of the forest in the district was private property. "No Forest Conservancy," remarked the Deputy Commissioner, existed in the jungle (for I cannot call it forest), Government property. The right of cutting trees in the Government jungle was leased to the Rajah of Koderma, on an annual lease for the sum of R.1 per annum; but the lease has been lately broken." From his investigations into the past history of the forests up to this period the author believes Hazaribagh must have held the record for receiving the smallest amount of annual forest revenue from a lease.

The species of trees which were more or less common to