us._--DARWIN, _Nat. Voy._ ch. xviii. p. 407. For a further
account of the pingo see Vol. I. Part iv. ch. viii. p. 497.]

_Timber trees_, either for export or domestic use, are not found in any
abundance except in the low country, and here the facility of floating
them to the sea, down the streams which intersect the eastern coast of
the island, has given rise to an active trade at Batticaloa and
Trincomalie. But, unfortunately, the indifference of the local officers
entrusted with the issue of licences to fell, and the imperfect control
exercised over the adventurers who embark in these speculations, has led
to a destruction of trees quite disproportionate to the timber obtained,
and utterly incompatible with the conservation of the valuable kinds.
The East India Company have had occasion to deplore the loss of their
teak forests by similar neglect and mismanagement; and it is to be hoped
that, ere too late, the attention of the Ceylon Government may be so
directed to this important subject as to lead to the appointment of
competent foresters, under whose authority and superintendence the
felling of timber may be carried on.

An interesting memoir on the timber trees of Ceylon has been prepared by
a native officer at Colombo, Adrian Mendis, of Morottu,
carpeater-moodliar to the Royal Engineers, in which he has enumerated
upwards of ninety species, which, in various parts of the island, are
employed either as timber or cabinet woods.[1] Of these, the jak, the
Kangtal of Bengal (_Artocarpus integrifolia_), is, next to the coco-nut
and Palmyra, by far the most valuable to the Singhalese; its fruit,
which sometimes attains the weight of 50 lbs., supplying food for their
table, its leaves fodder for their cattle, and its trunk timber for
every conceivable purpose both oeconomic and ornamental. The Jak tree,
as well as the Del, or wild bread-fruit, is indigenous to the forests on
the coast and in the central provinces; but, although the latter is
found in the vicinity of the villages, it does not appear to be an
object of special cultivation. The Jak, on the contrary, is planted near
every house, and forms the shade of every garden. Its wood, at first
yellow, approaches the colour of mahogany after a little exposure to the
air, and resembles it at all times in its grain and marking.

[Footnote 1: Mendis' List will be found appended to the _Ceylon
Calendar_ for 1854.]

The Del (_Artocarpus pubescens_) affords a valuable tim