the trees attains a larger size than it does on the open hills or plains, and its value (near a populous city) is thereby proportionally enhanced.

"Southward in the country of the Punt Suchew and in that near Sherwul, west of Poorundhur, are many plantations on the hills, but it does not appear that they have ever been allowed to reach any size, though the nature of the country (valleys shut in by steep hills) is favourable for their growth. "In the southern Mahratta Country, west of Pelgaum and Dharwar, are forests believed to be extensive, and showing by their luxuriance of growth the superiority of the soil and that the climate is eminently fitted for them. From specimens of the wood of these forests lately brought to Bombay it would appear that the timber is equal, if not superior in breadth and quality, to that of Malabar.

"All the teak forests mentioned contain also a variety of other timber-trees, which are very useful in particular departments of public works. The shewun is valuable for its lightness and flexibility, the sissoo for its dense fibre and consequent strength to support heavy weights or resist friction, and there are other woods useful to the turner, the wheelwright and modeller."

The above report furnishes evidence of the fact that Colonel Jervis not only possessed a considerable acquaintance with the forests of the Presidency but, so far as the reports and correspondence extant afford evidence, was one of the few to point out that the forests should be conserved not only for the primary object of providing timber for the Government purposes, but also in the interests of the agrarian population who inhabited the tracts in the neighbourhood of the forests. The report also forms a valuable record of the state of the forests in the tracts dealt with at the period for which it was drawn up.

It becomes evident from Jervis' Minute that no care was taken of the forests of the Bombay Presidency previously to 1840, but after the appointment of Dr. Gibson, in March of that year, to examine them and suggest means for their preservation and improvement, the Government of Bombay, acting probably on that officer's advice, appear to have made some endeavours to protect the forests. The measures adopted failed however, owing, it was stated, to the want of unity of superintendence, as under the plan pursued one part of the

forests was under the Military Department, another under the Political, and a third under the Revenue Department, without there being any immediate controlling authority. In December, 1843, the deteriorated condition of the forests, and the difficulty of obtaining good timber, attracted the notice of the Military Board of Bombay, which resulted in Jervis preparing the above recorded Minute. In this and two other communications he made several valuable suggestions for the care and conservancy of the timber forests. The Military Board took up the matter and recommended the Government to organise an establishment under a qualified person, for the conservation of all the forests, and applied to be vested with the whole control and management of them, on the ground that "each department of Government requiring supplies of timber, whether Public Works, Ordnance or Shipping, has in some one of the persons, either of the Members or of the Secretaries of the Military Board, its appropriate representative."

It is difficult to conceive, apart from the well-known fact that every Department of State endeavours to keep as much of the machinery of government, and consequently power, in its own hands-it is difficult to conceive how the Military Board could have justified to itself its suggestion to be vested with the whole control and management of the forests. It is true that they were very closely interested in the utilisation of the timber, and that it should be extracted by the best methods and with the least amount of damage to the timber itself. But Jervis' Minute of itself shows that he understood that the mere extraction and utilisation of the products was but one side of the matter, and that a comparatively small one, compared to the work of far greater magnitude which the proper conservation and management of the forests in the interests of the country and whole community involved. Little as this issue was realised at that day the first glimmerings of this great necessity were beginning to frame themselves on the vision of the more far-sighted officials, and it would have been of very considerable interest to have on record Jervis' private opinions of the Military Board's suggestion. For it must have been obvious to him that the Civil or Revenue Department, closely associated with the government of the people out in the districts, must inevitably be the Department under which the management of the forests would ultimately fall.

The Bombay Government temporised. They first called for a return of all persons who drew any salary or derived any emolument from the management of the forests; unfortunately this return has not been traced in the records of that time. The Military Board were then asked to submit a scheme for the establishment of conservancy under Dr. Gibson. They complied, recommending that Gibson should be appointed Conservator without relinquishing his appointment as Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens. In a subsequent letter (April, 1844) they further suggested that Gibson, in his capacity of " Interim Conservator," should be employed to carry out the views proposed by the Board for the preservation of the forests. It is supposed that the title of "Interim Conservator" was adopted owing to the fact that it was known that application had been made to the Court of Directors to appoint a trained Arboriculturist, and that if given effect to the latter might arrive in the country with full powers to take over charge of the forests of both the Bombay and Madras Presidencies. The information which had been collected by Gibson on his tours, and the results of the experimental thinning of the forests already referred to, were such as to induce the Government to take into consideration the propriety of permanently appointing an officer for the general conservancy of the forests, whose duty should be to enforce a regulated system for felling timber, and to consider the means for preventing a decrease in the supply of firewood and building timber, throughout the Presidency. They recognised the desirability of having a department with a recognised status free from the complications which had arisen from the divided authority; pending such a settlement of the question they directed the Military Board to enforce such general measures as involved no particular outlay and could be superintended by the local officers, with the occasional aid of Gibson as "Interim Conservator," until an active and efficient system could be introduced with the sanction of the Supreme Government. In November, 1845, the Government of Bombay submitted the whole correspondence to the Government of India, with a letter detailing in full their views and intentions as regards the management of the forests. In that letter and correspondence the Bombay Government explained the urgent necessity for the establishment of a supervising agency, and they asked the sanction of the Supreme Government to the appointment of a Conservator, with a

small office establishment, including an Assistant Conservator on Rs.200 per mensem, at an increased cost amounting to Rs.3576 per annum on the then existing charges. This increased charge, it was estimated, would be defrayed by the receipts which might be calculated to accrue from the sale of the thinnings of the forests, after deducting the actual charge for cutting, and it even considered that the receipts in the first years of the Department might be reasonably estimated at Rs.5000.

In March, 1846, in reply, the Government of India enquired whether the conservancy measures were intended to apply to Government forests only, or were to be extended equally to forests not the property of Government, and whether the duties of Conservator were to be confined to the forests of the Bombay Presidency only or to be extended to the forests on the western coast of the Madras Presidency; and if the latter, whether the Madras Presidency had been consulted and had approved. The Bombay Government replied that although the conservative measures had mainly in view the Government forests yet they proposed that the Conservator should enquire into the claims of ownership of areas of forests in secluded localities, not yet dealt with; it was also intended, where possible, without political inconvenience or injustice, to apply the proposed conservancy arrangements to all forests belonging to independent chiefs, of which description there were many. With reference to the enquiry concerning the Madras Forests the Bombay Government had not addressed the Madras Government on the subject, but thought that it would be to the public advantage if the Madras Forests were included in the Conservatorship.

On December 19th, 1846, the Government of India authorised "the employment of an establishment for the management of the forests under the Bombay Presidency, at a monthly charge of 293 rupees," and on 22nd March, 1847, the Government of Bombay appointed Dr. Gibson Conservator, in addition to his appointment as Superintendent of the Botanical Gardens, and authorised him to entertain the establishment which had been sanctioned by the Government of India.

This modest beginning was the first step towards the inauguration of efficient management into the Indian forests, the appointments made being the first "Conservator" and "Assistant Conservator" gazetted in the country, the forerunners of the great service which was to follow.

It had taken nearly half a century to arrive at this point. It was stipulated that the Conservator's charge should not include the timber depots which had been formed many years previously at Calicut for the purchase of teak for the Bombay Dockyard, nor were the timber stores at the latter place placed under the Conservator. Gibson was appointed under the immediate orders of the Military Department, and the latter were requested to draw up rules for his guidance. These rules appear never to have been submitted, and Gibson seems to have been left to exercise his own judgment and discretion in giving effect to the objects Government had in view by his appointment.

The districts over which Gibson's control as Conservator extended were the Northern and Southern Concans, and the Collectorates of the Deccan and Southern Mahratta country, as also the forests in Surat and the Dangs; and, in 1847, the forests of Sattara were placed under his management.

Having settled their new Forest Conservancy Staff the Bombay Government, in February, 1848, communicated the arrangement to the Madras Government and suggested the transfer of the Canara and Sondah forests, north of the Gungawallee creek, to their supervision with the view of placing them under Dr. Gibson. When we reflect on the reception such a proposal would have met with in India sixty years or so later, it will create little surprise that the Government of Madras "did not approve of such an arrangement. They were, however, quite ready to take full advantage of Gibson's experience and would welcome visits and advice from him which they would give strict attention to. The suggestion was officially sanctioned and Gibson appears to have visited Canara on two or three occasions and to have reported at length on the forests inspected, recommending the planting of certain tracts and the protection and preservation of other tracts in the northern part of Canara. For these purposes the Government of India, on 21st October, 1848, sanctioned an addition to the existing forest establishment in Canara to the extent of Rs.180 per mensem.

One of the reasons which influenced the sanction of the extra staff in Canara was doubtless the views, which make their appearance for the first time in the official memoranda on the forestry question, put forward by Mr. Blane (the successor to Blair as Collector of Canara) and Gibson. The correspondence submitted by the Government of Madras with reference to