It is evident that in both years the best timbers at the depôt were picked out and sold, and the smaller timbers left. If these can be disposed of at the same rate (the returns in the Report took the average value of the logs on hand in the depôt at the end of the year as the average value of the logs disposed of) as the large logs, there is no harm in this selection, but the accumulation of small logs should be avoided. It is supposed that purchasers are to a certain extent permitted to select their timber."

Cleghorn concluded his valuable Report on his examination of the Chenab River Forests and operations as follows:

"The Pangi Timber Agency has effected the desired object in bringing down a larger and better supply of timber than formerly. Previous to its existence, public works were often stopped for want of timber, which was scarce and high-priced. In 1861-2 four and a half lakhs of cubic feet of deodar were issued to the Punjab Railway Company, and 60,000 cubic feet to different officers of the Department of Public Works; this quantity being twice as much as was brought down the Chenab by all the native traders during the same year, and sold at half the price. In 1862-3, nearly five lakhs of cubic feet were supplied to the Punjab Railway Company; and 40,000 cubic feet to Government officers. Various hard and fancy woods have been procured, and something has been done to restore the forests by planting which should be systematically carried out if a long or perpetual lease can be arranged." "The financial result is favourable. The sales of the last two years are given below:

It is proposed to erect a saw mill at the head of Bajwat Island, and the scheme has received the sanction of the Government of India. Great advantages will result from sawing up the timber as it enters the plains. From the commencement of the Agency the chief timber depôt has been at Sealkote. But circumstances have changed. The demand for wood at that station is now small, and Wazirabad is certainly the most convenient locality, the Lahore and Peshawar road

affording great facilities for transport. The depôt has accordingly been removed to that place. The river becomes navigable for rafts at Aknur, fifty-three miles above Wazirabad, and down to its junction with the Gara (300 miles) no obstacle to navigation occurs. The demand for boat-building materials is increasing."

THE VALLEY OF THE JHELUM RIVER

The Jhelum, the westernmost of the five great rivers of the Punjab, takes its name from the town of Jhelum. It drains the valley of Kashmir, and flows through the Pass of Baramula in the lofty range of Pir Panjal. Its tributaries, including the Jhelum proper, are the Vesha, Sind, Kishenganga and Kunihar or Nainsukh. The mountain course of the river in Kashmir is about 380 miles, with a fall of about 8000 feet to the Kashmir Plain, where the river becomes slow running. Its length from the foot of the hills to its junction with the Chenab is about 280 miles.

The Jhelum River is the Hydaspes of the old Greek historians. Both Arrian and Strabo record that Alexander the Great was supplied by this river with wood from Kashmir, of which he constructed boats. Strabo, Lib., XV, p. 480, says:

“Alexandrum, ait, in sylva montium emodorum multum abietem, pinum, cedrumque, aliasque arbores navibus compingendis idoneas, cædi jussisse atque in Hydaspem, deduxisse, equibus classis constructa sit."

Kashmir is well known to many nowadays, and is famous for its great beauty. But at the period at which Cleghorn visited the Western Himalaya and wrote his Report there were no records descriptive of the timber resources of the Kashmir Valley, although much valuable information was to be found scattered through the works on the travels of Vigne, Von Hugel, Jacquemont, Thomson and Moorcroft, the observations of the last two perhaps being the most informative. Sir Henry Lawrence had accompanied the Maharajah Golab Singh, when the latter went up to take possession of Kashmir after it had been ceded to him in 1846. For those unacquainted with Kashmir it may be said that this Native State consists of an extensive plain or valley, with broad sheets of water favouring a rich cultivation by an abundant population, surrounded on all sides by lofty mountains. The State forms the upper part of the basin of the Jhelum, and is separated from the valley of the Chenab on the south by the rugged and often snowy

ranges, and from the basin of the Indus on the north by the main axis of the Western Himalaya. The mountains on the north are for the most part bare and rugged on their southern face, while those which lie to the south appear from the plains to be magnificently wooded with forests of pines and deciduousleaved trees descending almost to their base (Thomson). Kashmir is traversed in its whole length by the Jhelum, which rises at the east end of the valley and winds through the plain, at one time washing the base of the northern hills, at another receding to a considerable distance from them. The stream is tranquil and slow in the plains, and navigable for boats of considerable burden throughout the whole length of the level country as far up as Islamabad. It was consequently at this period a great highway for traffic, and wheel carriage, in spite of the fact that the country is perfectly level, was unknown. The stream is small at Islamabad, but through tributaries, it enlarges, till at Srinagar it is 50 to 100 yards across and often very deep. The elevation of the bed is 5300 feet.

The deodar was abundant and was extensively used in the construction of houses, temples and bridges. The forests also contained Pinus longifolia, P. excelsa, silver fir, walnut, maple, poplar, willow, yew and a species of juniper. The "chinar " (Platanus orientalis) or oriental plane, "though not indigenous," wrote Cleghorn, "is probably found nowhere more abundant or luxurious. The absence of oaks, rhododendrons, Andromeda and Pinus Gerardiana is remarkable."

On his accession Golab Sing, the then Maharajah, monopolised the timber trade, and the price of wood then was double what it had formerly been. The only kind of wood floated down the Jhelum was the deodar. As soon as the snow melted it was floated down the various streams, collected by the Government and sold at Jhelum. It was calculated that the average annual supply was about 2000 logs (exclusive of the British timber from Kaghan), some of the logs being 50 feet in length.

By orders of the Mogul Emperors, a grove of chinar and poplar was planted near every Kashmir village; these were protected by a heavy fine on every tree felled, but the Sikhs destroyed many of them. "Extensive groves," says Cleghorn, "of mulberry trees, planes and poplars, elms and willows, still constitute one of the greatest beauties of the country, and give an European aspect to the scenery."

The instructions of the Lieutenant-Governor required Cleghorn to visit the forests of Kaghan along the banks of the Kunihar or Nainsukh, the only tributary of the Jhelum which he personally explored. The deodar forests in Kashmir above the confluence of the Kishenganga and Jhelum proper still remained, he said, to be examined.

I

CHAPTER XXIII

FOREST OPERATIONS IN THE PUNJAB, 1858-1864

(continued)

THE FORESTS OF THE FRONTIER

T has been deemed advisable to deal with Cleghorn's visits to forests on the Punjab Frontier in a separate chapter. His Report on this region indicates the lines upon which they were being exploited and treated by the Frontier Officers at this period, in addition to affording valuable information on their condition at the time.

The regions dealt with are the Kaghan, Hazara, Murree Hills and Rawal Pindi District; and a valuable Memorandum on the timber procurable from the Indus, Swat and Kabul rivers.

A great deal of interesting information, which is outside the purview of a history of the forests, is given (as demanded by the instructions of Government to Cleghorn) on the agriculture, orchards, flora, especially from a medicinal point of view, and so forth, of the areas visited. It is with regret that these details, exhibiting so clearly the remarkable powers of observation, scientific knowledge and energy with which Cleghorn was endowed, cannot be incorporated here. Allusion is made to them, however, as they exhibit in the most striking manner the lines upon which British administration, even in the wild frontier districts, was now being carried on; and with what devotion and self-sacrifice the British officials were throwing their whole hearts into ameliorating the condition of the people and bringing so far as possible order and the pax Britannica into regions which had known no orderly regime through the centuries. Those who ask what the British have done in India and for India can find their answer in Cleghorn's remarkable Report of what was being accomplished on the Punjab Frontier sixty years ago.