In the Andamans and Nicobars: The Narrative of a Cruise in the Schooner 'Terrapin' - C. Boden Kloss

Padouk	Pterocarpus Indicus	For furniture.
Koko	Albizzia Lebbek
Chuglam, Black	Myristica Irya
Marble wood	Diospyros Kurzii

Padouk	Pterocarpus Indicus	For building.
Gangaw	Mesua ferrea
Toung-peingne.	Artocarpus Chaplasha
Pyimma	Lagerstrœmia hypoleuca
Thingan	Hopea odorata
Lakuch	Artocarpus Lakucha
Thitmin	Podocarpus bracteata
Gurjan	Dipterocarpus sp.
Mohwa	Mimusops littoralis

Bombway	Careya arborea	Probably useful for paving-blocks.
Gangaw	Mesua ferrea
Mohwa	Mimusops littoralis
Pyimma	Lagerstrœmia hypoleuca
Lakuch	Artocarpus Lakucha
Gurjan	Dipterocarpus sp.
Thingan	Hopea odorata

Gurjan	Dipterocarpus sp.	For tea-boxes, indigo boxes, and packing-cases.
Didu	Bombax insigne
Toung-peingne	Artocarpus Chaplasha
Thitmin	Podocarpus bracteata
And numerous other woods	Barringtonia sp.

Padouk	Pterocarpus Indicus	For gun-carriages and carriage work.
Pyimma	Lagerstrœmia hypoleuca
Thingan	Hopea odorata

Padouk	Pterocarpus Indicus	For shafts.
Gangaw	Mesua ferrea	For shafts.

Lakuch	Artocarpus Lakucha	Probably useful for oars.
Thitmin	Podocarpus bracteata	Probably useful for oars.

Satin wood	Murraya exotica	In place of boxwood.

Mangrove	sp.	For firewood.

The Madras and Bombay Government gun-carriage factories are supplied with Andamanese timber, which, so far, is understood to have given them satisfaction. Such timber has been sent to Roorkee for the Military Gymnasium, as being the best suited in India for its purposes. The Indian Marine Department also takes it regularly. Andamanese timber has also been supplied to Woolwich Arsenal. These facts show that Andamanese timber is of value to such establishments as gun-carriage factories, arsenals, gymnasia, and ship-building yards.

For various reasons, most of the Andamanese timbers will probably be found to be best marketable in a converted form. It is believed that such converted timbers will be found useful for six large trades at least, viz., paving wood-blocks, gun-stocks, pianoforte manufacture, furniture, organ building—for which Padouk is pre-eminently suitable—and electric light and telephone fittings. If Gurjan should turn out, as is believed to be probable, to be of use for paving wood-blocks, then the supply would be very large.

Two forms of converted timbers may be specially noticed as probably marketable in large quantities, viz., railway sleepers, and tea shooks. It is believed that there are several timbers which would stand the strain of railway traffic; and as regards tea shooks, Gurjan is used for this purpose in some mills in Assam, and of this particular wood there is an unlimited supply all over the Andamans, which could probably be delivered locally at a price which would enable it to compete well in Indian markets with other timbers used for tea-boxes.

The supply of mangrove billets for firewood, at points where it can be easily and cheaply shipped, is very large in the Andamans, and it is thought possible that a very profitable and lasting Indian trade might be established in firewood.

At present, no trade exists at all in gurjan oil, and, as above stated, the supply of Gurjan trees is unlimited. It is believed that the supply of Gurjan in India has largely been worked out, therefore that in the Andamans should become valuable. A small quantity of gurjan oil is extracted in the Settlement and used chiefly for mixing with earth oil for application to shingle roofs. The uses to which this oil is put are so many that the possibility of a profitable trade in the Andamanese supply seems to be beyond question.

For the construction of houses, bridges, and jetties, the following species are chiefly used in the Settlement:—

Padouk.—Posts, trusses, purlins, common rafters, battens, floor and wall planking, shingles, doors, and windows.

Koko.—Joists, common rafters, battens, fillets, floor-planking, doors, and windows.

White Chuglam.—Floor and ceiling planking.