able and useful woods
in Ceylon, and is almost the only kind that is thoroughly adapted for
making staves for casks. Of late years the great increase of the
oil-trade has brought this wood into general request, consequent upon
the increased demand for casks. So extensive and general is the
present demand for this wood that the natives are continually occupied
in conveying it from certain districts which a few years ago were
utterly neglected. Unfortunately, the want of roads and the means of
transport confine their operations to the banks of rivers, down which
the logs are floated at the proper season.

I recollect some eight years ago crossing the Mahawelli river upon a
raft which my coolies had hastily constructed, and reaching a miserable
village near Monampitya, in the extreme north of the Veddah country.
The river is here about four hundred paces wide, and, in the rainy
season a fine volume of water rolls along in a rapid stream toward
Trincomalee, at which place it meets the sea. I was struck it the time
with the magnificent timber in the forests on its banks, and no less
surprised that with the natural facilities of transport it should be
neglected. Two years ago I crossed at this same spot, and I remarked
the wonderful change which a steady demand had effected in this wild
country. Extensive piles of halmileel logs were collected along the
banks of the river, while the forests were strewed with felled trees in
preparation for floating down the stream. A regular demand usually
ensures a regular supply, which could not be better exemplified than in
this case.

Among fancy woods the bread-fruit tree should not be omitted. This is
something similar to the jack, but, like the tamarind, the value of the
produce saves the tree from destruction.

This tree does not attain a very large size, but its growth is
exceedingly regular and the foliage peculiarly rich and plentiful. The
fruit is something similar in appearance to a small, unripe jack-fruit,
with an equally rough exterior. In the opinion of most who have tasted
it, its virtues have been grossly exaggerated. To my taste it is
perfectly uneatable, unless fried in thin slices with butter; it is
even then a bad imitation of fried potatoes. The bark of this tree
produces a strong fibre, and a kind of very adhesive pitch is also
produced by decoction.

The cocoa-nut and palmyra woods at once introduce us to the palms of
Ceylon, the most useful and the mo