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2 of the timber has been successfully brought down. But even
3 with the facilities of transit afforded by these roads, the question
4 of keeping up a steady supply of food for the gangs of work-
5 people was one of great anxicty; any failure in the arrival
6 of the convoys of mules and coolies would have been at-
7 tended with the most disastrous results. On one _ occasion
8 when, during the floods of 1871, the Jumna atits debouchment
9 from the hills suddenly altered its course, thereby isolating one
10 of the bridges, the work gangs were solely dependent on the
11 reserves of food in store, as no convoys could arrive for many
12 days; there seemed every fear that a necessity might arise of
13 breaking up the gangs to save the men from imminent starva-
14 tion. It was then due only to the unprecedented exertions of the
15 Forest Officers on the works, in bringing in food by circuitous
16 routes, that the difficulty was tided over. But in addition to
17 the preparation of the sleepers, the arrangements for transporting
18 them from the forests in the mountains to the main rivers, down
19 which they could be floated to the plains, were met by difficulties
20 at every turn. Labour-gangs were at first employed for the car-
21 riage of the sleepers, but this plan was found to be too slow in
22 operation, and tog expensive. Last winter an ingenious system
23 of troughs or slides down the mountain sides was devised; two of
24 these troughs have already been constucted and successfully
25 worked. In gauge they are slightly wider than a slecper itself,
26 and form a continuous channel down which a stream of water
27 is turned, and the sleepers shot into the river. One of these
28 troughs or slides is 4} miles in length, and occupied about
29 five months in construction. But besides the preparing and
30 transporting of the sleepers to the plains, it still remained to
31 convey them to the termini of the railway at Dehli and Agra;
32 for this further transport, upwards of a 1,000 boatmen were
33 employed to raft the sleepers from the Bhagarati down the
34 Ganges canal, to points within a few miles of both Agra and Dehli,
35 from whence they were conveyed, some by cart, some by rail, to
36 their destinations. The sleepers from the Jumna valley were
37 taken down the Jumna, and, by one of the canals which that
38 river feeds, to the same points of delivery. A sum of about
39 £50,000 has been expended on the preparation of sleepers in
40 the forests of the North-Western Provinces during the past
41 year, and it is creditable to the Conservator and Officers of the
42 Department that there has been no break-down in the conduct
43 of such extensive and difficult operations.
44 44. Besides this large delivery of deodar sleepers at Agra
45 and Dehli, 45,541 s&l sleepers, containing upwards of 62,000
46 cubic feet of timber, have been prepared and made over to the Rail-
47 way Engineers in the Kamaon and Garhwal Forests. In the sume
48 forest also 78,344 cubic feet of sil in scantlings have been sold
49 to the public, and 1,576 s&l logs brought to depét. In the
50 forests of Jounsar and Dera Diin, 13,650 pieces of deodar and
51 29,742 pieces of inferior fir timber have been prepared, and sup-
52 plied for the Chakrata barrack-buildings; 44,9010 scantlings of
53 sil and inferior timber have been sold to the public, and wood to
54 the value of Rs. 33,475 has been supplied for the head-works
55 and dams of the Ganges Canal.
56 45. In the Punjab, fellings have been, generally speaking, as
57 limited in extent as possible, owing to previous unusual demands
58 on the forests for the Northern State Railway, and the efforts of the
59 department there have been directed chiefly to clearing out logs,
60 left from past seasons in the forests and rivers. 414 deodar trees
61 have been felled in the Jhilam, 70 in the Bias, and 200 pines
62 in the Ravi. Sleeper operations for the supply of the Indus Valley
63 Railway were commenced in the forests of both the Bias and Satlaj,