of the most insignificant groves of the big trees at the northern extreme of its range are protected by the State legislature, and a law has been enacted forbidding the felling of trees over 15 feet in diameter; but there is no law to prevent the cutting or burning of the saplings, on which the perpetuation of the grove depends, or to prevent the burning of the old trees, which, if they do escape the fire, will succumb to the drought which the sweeping away of the environing forest will occasion. In Texas, where there is a very inadequate supply of timber, the growth of trees on the prairies is being attempted, but the frequency and destructiveness of prairie fires are great obstacles to success.

Central America.—Mexico and the various states of the isthmus uniting North and South America, as well as the West Indian Islands, possess abundant forests, which are as yet, however, imperfectly known. But they contain many fine timbers in large quantities, the chief of which, mahogany, Swietenia Mahagoni, deserves special notice. The mahogany tree is found on the mainland and in the West Indian Islands between 11° and 20° N. lat. It grows to a large size, with a perfectly straight stem, and is exported from the different states and islands where it grows. That which comes from British Honduras is esteemed the best, but the supply from there has declined of late years. Mahogany was first imported into England about 1640. It has been introduced into Bengal and Malabar. In the neighbourhood of Panama 2000 persons are employed in drawing off the juice of Castilloa elastica, the Central American caoutchouc tree, and in Nicaragua 600 to 800 persons find similar employment. (See Nature, 1875.)

Cuba. For variety and value the woods of Cuba rival those of the mainland, but the Government forests have been neglected and left to chance and plunder. There has been no attempt to control the misuse, waste, and wanton destruction of forest. Valuable timber is felled for making enclosures, and much is burnt. Almost all the remaining woods belong to private persons. Mahogany, cedar, and fustic wood, with many others, are produced freely. During last century forty-two ships of war were built in the Royal Arsenal of Havannah, and with proper management much timber for naval purposes might be obtained.

South America. The richness and luxuriance of the tropical vegetation in South America are proverbial, and the whole chain of the Andes is clothed with wood, varying according to elevation, latitude, and aspect. Owing to the scarcity and high price of labour, with the few facilities of transport to the sea-coast, the timber trade of South America has not as yet reached great dimensions; but with the increase of population and the opening up of the country this commerce will be vastly developed. No data as to the extent of forest area are available, but with great variety of climate in the vast continent there is great diversity also in the vegetation. Each State has its own special forest-products to export, of which, however, we can only name a few of the more valuable.

British Guiana furnishes two of the most valuable timbers known for shipbuilding, greenheart (Nectandra Rodiai) and mora (Mora excelsa); both of these grow to a large size, and are said to be very abundant, but owing to the great demand, and the want of legal restriction to prevent the cutting of saplings, it is becoming difficult to obtain good greenheart. It is to be hoped that the British colonies in the western hemisphere will follow the example of the East Indian empire, and introduce, ere it be too late, measures of conservancy and reproduction. Sir J. Hooker has urged this in strong terms. (Kew Report, 1877.)

French Guiana contains valuable forests, and produces "angelique" (Dicorynia paraensis), a timber much employed in naval dockyards.

Venezuela.-Humboldt mentions in his travels that the waters of the Lake Valencia had greatly decreased owing to the clearings of forest in the Aragua valley, near the northern coast of Venezuela. The Orinoco, the great water highway of Venezuela, is fringed in its lower course with magnificent evergreen forests. The most important trees of this republic are lignum vitæ (Zygophyllum arboreum), found chiefly on the coast, and "guayacan," used for cabinet work. Brazil wood is so common as to be generally used for fences. Cedar and ebony are also among the products. Venezuela is the home of the cow tree (Galactodendron utile), which yields large quantities of nutritious thick milky juice. The cocoa plant (Theobroma Cacao) is also a native of the north of South America, thriving vigorously with a maximum of humidity and a high temperature.

Ecuador contains great forests east of the Andes, where the climate is excessively humid. The export trade in 1874 amounted to £676,635, upwards of £500,000 being for cocoa, india-rubber, and cinchona bark. The bark of Cinchona Calisaya is no longer procurable; that of C. succirubra is exported.

Brazil.-The great empire of Brazil has forests covering an area half the size of Europe. For 2000 miles the river Amazon flows through Brazilian territory, and forms with its tributaries the only interruption in a rich level tract measuring 1200 miles from E. to W. and 800 from N. to S. covered with virgin forest. R. Spruce graphically describes the wonderful luxuriance of a forest on the Amazon.

"As we ran along shore and gradually lessened our distance, I endeavoured to trace out the species composing the forest, but, with the exception of the palms, of the trees with bipinnate foliage, and of a few with remarkable dome-shaped crowns, there was such an intermingling of forms that I in vain attempted to separate them; nor was there, among exogenous trees, any contour so striking as the twisted pyramid of our northern pines. When I entered the forest the confusion was still greater; for so much were the branches of adjacent trees interwoven, and so densely veiled in many cases with twiners, and epiphytes, that only an indistinct view could be obtained of any individual tree, and it was only when sailing along the banks of the rivers that I saw so much of the trees in the inundated forest as to give me a clear idea of the outlines and general aspect of many of them."-Jour. Linn. Soc., v. 3.

The productiveness of the Brazilian forests may be inferred from the fact that in the Paris Exhibition of 1873 were 300 different kinds of timber, many of them of great value both for naval and civil construction and for ornamental work. No plantations have yet been formed of these valuable woods, and fustic and Brazil wood are to be met with only at a distance from the coast. The most important woods of construction are-jacaranda (Dalbergia nigra), Brazil wood (Caesalpinia echinata), ironwood (Caesalpinia ferrea), cedar (Cedrela brasiliensis). But the Brazilian forests though rich in timber are richer still in gums, resins, drugs, dyes, and produce valuable for trade and manufacturing purposes. The great development of commerce in forest produce is illustrated by the export returns for 1871-72, viz. :

Of dye stuffs the best are Brazil wood, fustic (Maclura tinctoria), red mangrove (Rhizophora), arnotto (Bixa Orellana); of drugs, sarsaparilla (Smilax sp.), ipecacuanha (Cephaelis Ipecacuanha), guarana (Paullinia sorbilis), jalap (Exogonium Purga), &c. Europe draws from Brazil its largest supply of caoutchouc. It is obtained from Siphonia elastica and Hancornia speciosa, trees growing in abundance in the provinces of Amazonas and Para, and so large has been the export that in some districts the supply begins to fail. Copernicia cerifera, the wax palm, is a most valuable tree,—the estimated annual production in wax and fibre is nearly £250,000 (official return). Brazil wood and Brazil nuts (Bertholletia excelsa) are among the largest exports.

Peru. In the Montana region of Peru (that is, the extensive area stretching eastward from the Andes to the confines of Brazil) are vast forests, yielding in spontaneous abundance Peruvian bark, india-rubber, vanilla, copaiba, cinnamon, sarsaparilla, ipecacuanha, vegetable wax, &c., but the collection of produce and its transport through the sierra and coast regions to the ports is attended with much difficulty and expense. The region of cinchona trees lies between 19° S. and 10° N. lat., and between 2500 and 9000 feet elevation above the sea. In South America the miserable Governments of the cinchona districts have almost destroyed the inestimable boon with which a bountiful providence has endowed them. Happily, in this case, the energy of such men as Markham, Spruce, and others has in great measure prevented a loss which would have been incalculable; for the cinchona plantations established in India, in Java, and in various other colonies give promise that Europeans will not in the future suffer from the thoughtless greed of the semi-civilized Governments of the Andine States.

Chili. In the inner valleys of the Cordilleras there are estimated to be from 250,000 to 500,000 acres of virgin forest, containing trees of great dimensions.

Uruguay.-The "montes" of South and Central Uruguay form narrow fringes to the larger streams, and rarely exceed a few hundred yards in width. Seen from distant higher ground they resemble rivers of verdure meandering through the bare campos, from which they are sharply defined-the reason being that the wood only grows where it is liable to inundation. N. and E. Uruguay are little known, but the same description is applicable to them. In the montes of the Rio Negro, Dr David Christison reports having seen twenty species of trees and shrubs, including a palm which extends southwards to the Santa Lucia. The montes of Uruguay are of no commercial value, and their extent must be trifling, but they suffice for the wants of the present scanty population. The beautiful ombu (Pircunia or Phytolacca dioica) is the only tree which is possibly native on the campos. The softness of its spongy tissue renders it useless for burning and for timber. On the eastern side of South America, continued in the whole stretch of 1500 miles south of the Rio de la Plata to the straits of Magellan, wood seems to be extremely rare, except a few thorny acacias in the plains of Patagonia, some willows on the banks of one or two of the rivers, and the antarctic beech and the Winter's bark tree-a great contrast to some of the islands of Tierra del Fuego, which, from the descriptions of Darwin, we know to be completely covered with forest.

AUSTRALIA.

The large continent of Australia, so far as it has been colonized, is emphatically a pastoral country, and no survey has yet been made

of its surface bearing wood. There are vast tracts in the interior covered with scrub, but the total area of forest producing timber seems to be comparatively small. The growth of trees is more vigorous in the east than on the north and north-west coasts. The foliage is usually evergreen, and the leaves of many trees hang vertically. The chief forests occupy the flat margins of the rivers, and are composed of species of Acacia and Eucalyptus mingled with Callitris and Casuarina, Banksia, Melaleuca, Xanthorrhoea, and Exocarpus. The Eucalyptus and Acacia are said to compose fourfifths of the forests of Australia and Tasmania. These trees, formerly despised and thought of little value, are now introduced into many countries where artificial planting has been found necessary, and are extensively grown in India, Mauritius, Algeria, and Italy. The Eucalypti in particular possess many excellent qualities: their timber is of great durability, strength, and toughness; they are rapid in growth; and E. Globulus, or blue gum, is reputed to purify the surrounding air from malaria, and is frequently found 300-350 feet high, while E. diversicolor attains still larger dimensions. These, along with E. resinifera, iron bark tree, and E. marginata, Australian mahogany, "jarrah," are reported to be abundant in many parts of Australia. Other principal trees, chiefly in the east, are Cedrela Toona, or red cedar, Gmelina Leichardti, Araucaria Cunninghamii, or the Moreton Bay pine, and Castanospermum australe, or Moreton Bay chestnut. In Western Australia, amongst other forest trees of note, are the raspberry-scented acacia (A. acuminata) and sandalwood (Fusanus spicatus). A simpler system of forest management than the elaborate organizations of France, Germany, or Scandinavia is applicable to thinly peopled colonies. In the province of Victoria a State Forest Board was appointed in 1867, and maps have been prepared showing the distribution of the principal trees within its bounds, the proposed reserves, and the forest ranges. A Planting Encouragement Act was passed in 1872. By the formation of the board, with an inspector of forests to aid by advice, provision has been made for the preservation of existing woods and young plantations. The first annual report appeared in 1875, from which we find that the total area of reserves is 1,805 square miles, estimated to contain 400,000 trees, yielding an average of 700 superficial feet. There is a large state nursery, and there has been great success in planting exotic trees, Abies Douglasii, Cedrus Deodara, Sequoia gigantea, Cupressus torulosa, &c. These measures have been introduced mainly by the energy of Baron von Müller, the Government botanist in Victoria. Attention is directed to the subject in other Australian colonies, where there is an equal call for action, and a beginning towards conservation has already been made in Queensland. Even firewood in some places is now scarce; and the demands for mining and various industrial pursuits render it needful to import timber from other countries.

South Australia.-Dr R. Schomburgk reports in 1878 that three valuable forest trees have been successfully introduced, and are recommended to the forest board:-(1) the American ash, Fraxinus Americana, which has been largely grown in the forest reserves; (2) English elm, Ulmus campestris; and (3) the plane tree, Platanus orientalis. With regard to replanting the country with roadside trees and clamps, the individual enterprise of farmers, agriculturists, and landowners must be looked to.

In Tasmania the arboreous forms are similar to those of Australia. Eucalypti are even more abundant, and the acacia begin to disappear. It is remarkable that these two genera should be wholly absent in New Zealand. The vast forests of Western Tasmania are extensively utilized for timber. (See Bentham and Müller's Flora of Australia and Hooker's Flora of Tasmania.)

New Zealand.-One of the richest portions of the globe as regards arboreous vegetation is the colony of New Zealand. It enjoys a climate similar to that of the south of Europe; the vegetation is most luxuriant, and many tropical plants flourish, while conifers, characteristic of colder regions, also abound. In Britain the number of indigenous timber trees is only 35 out of a flora of 1400 species, while New Zealand has 113 timber trees in a flora of only about 1000 species. The most valuable tree of New Zealand is the kauri (Dammara australis), which grows only in the northern island. It attains the height of 120-160 feet and is 5-12 feet in diameter, is unrivalled for masts, and has long been exported to British dockyards for that purpose. The value for 7 years ending December 1873 from Auckland of kauri alone amounted to £144,000, against £19,739 of all other timber. Besides timber, kauri resin, obtained in great masses, is exported. In ten years the value amounted to £1,171,949; the price varies from £33 to £39 per ton. Other valuable trees are totara (Podocarpus totara) and matai (P. spicata), both found throughout the colony, and, like the kauri, yielding timber of great durability and strength, and Vitex littoralis, or New Zealand teak, esteemed more lasting than any other native wood. There are several species of Fagus, forming beech forest, and many other trees yield valuable wood, as Leptospermum cricoides, the tea-tree, and Santalum Cunninghamii, sandalwood. The forest area in New Zealand was calculated to have been 20,370 000 acres in 1830, and 12,130,000 acres in 1873, by Dr

Hector. The public were permitted to fell in the forests on payment of a small licence fee, and reckless unchecked felling has been the consequence. Such rapid deforesting of these densely wooded islands has naturally created an alarm in the legislature, and the Government in 1872 passed a Forest Planting Encouragement Act, offering a bonus for land cropped with trees. Several large plantations have been formed, and the Government has shown itself awake to the importance of the subject. In 1876 Captain Campbell Walker, an experienced officer of the Indian forest service, was requested to examine the resources of the New Zealand forests, and to propose a scheme of working them. His report was presented to both Houses of Assembly in 1877, and deserves the earnest attention of the New Zealand Government. In this richly wooded country clearings have been made with rapidity, and the great work now must be to preserve and propagate the valuable indigenous trees. An idea of the vastness of forest operations in New Zealand is derived from the fact that there are 125 steam or water-power saw-mills at work, turning out 103,039,037 superficial feet in 1876, and from each of these mills a tramway is laid down penetrating into the forests; the rails are generally of wood, and the haulage is by horses. It is understood that large forest tracts are to be demarcated and placed under the control of Government officers. In this way only can a regular system of forest management be carried out, and the temptation to obtain quick returns by sale of valuable forest avoided

AFRICA.

A large extent of the continent of Africa is arid and treeless; the drought in the desert is so great that no tree can resist it. But many parts are now ascertained to be rich in wood, and recent discoveries by Baker, Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley have opened up vast regions where much beautiful timber abounds. The Atlas Mountains are covered with magnificent forests, containing eight species of oak, Pistacia, Acacia arabica, Cedrus atlantica, closely allied to if not the same species as C. Libani and Deodara, and many other trees. To the south of the Atlas, on the borders of the great Sahara, are large tracts covered with date palms. The Sudan region has few trees; among these are the baobab (Adansonia), tamarind, sycamore, fig, the doom and oil palms, with a few thorny acacias.

Algeria. The forests consist mainly of the Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis), the cork oak (Quercus Suber), Q. Пlex, the Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica), and the Atlas cypress (Callitris quadrivalvis); associated with these are the Quercus castaneafolia, Q. ballota, Pinus Pinaster, and other species. The forest area is thus distributed :state forests, 4,657,567 acres; communal forests, 191,487; total, 4,849,054 acres. About two-thirds of this area is under the management of the forest service, the rest having been granted on long leases for cork production or olive culture. Cork is one of the most valuable of Algerian products, each tree yielding six to eight francs worth at a stripping. A large amount of bark for tanning and 50,000 tons of alpha grass are exported from the province. Conservancy has not yet proved remunerative, but with the extension of railroads an increase of revenue is expected (Major Seaton). The consul-general for Algeria alludes in the following terms to the evils which have attended the deforesting of Tunis :

"Nothing is more certain than that forests and tracts of brushwood not only prevent the evaporation of moisture by protecting the surface of the earth from the sun's rays, but they serve to retain the light clouds which otherwise would be dissipated, until they attain sufficient consistence to descend in rain or refreshing mists. A hill side deprived of the forest whose foliage acted as a huge parasol to the ground, and whose roots served to retain the vegetable soil which was formed by its decay, very soon loses the power of generating vegetable life at all. The rich mould gets washed by winter rains into the valleys; in the summer months the sand is blown down on the top of this; succeeding rains carry down stones and gravel, till very soon all the most fertile portions of the soil disappear, leaving a residuum which is only capable of supporting vegetation when it becomes fertilized by an exceptional amount of moisture, which, as time progresses, must become rarer and rarer, like the efforts of the spendthrift to live off income, and spending every year a portion of his capital."-Colonel R. L. Playfair, Travels in the Footsteps of Bruce in Algeria and Tunis (1877, p. 155). Tunis.-The African traveller Bruce 110 years ago alluded to the forests through which he passed, where not a tree is now to be seen. Dr Shaw and Desfontaines the botanist mention the Aleppo pine and the making of pitch, but the wide plain over which they journeyed is now treeless, and the forest described by the latter in 1784 has quite disappeared.

Egypt, though possessing no forests, has a considerable amount of wood in acacia, lebbek, tamarisks, tamarinds, zizyphus, &c., and has also a rich property in its date palms, which grow in great abundance.

Abyssinia has extensive woods in the mountains, whence the coffee plant has spread over the world.

The tropical vegetation of Africa under the equatorial belt of rain is very luxuriant, and differs much on the two coasts. In the interior of Central Africa, Livingstone, Cameron, and Stanley tell us of vast tracts of primeval forest in the Manyuema country between Tanganyika and the coast, and also in Urungu south of Tanganyika, but as yet little is known of them in detail. The explorations of Nachtigal have shed much light on the regions adjoining Bornu, and Rohlfs describes gigantic tamarind, acacia, and komova

trees. Stanley writes in glowing terms of the dense growth of lofty forests through which he had to cut his way, and specially refers to Bassia Parkii, or shea butter, which attains a large size, Oldfieldia africana, or African teak, kola nut (Sterculia), cashew nut, and gigantic tamarinds.

The western coast states-Congo, Sierra Leone, Senegambia-are all rich in wood, but comparatively little is known of the amount or of the value of the timbers, though some of these already find their way into European markets, in small quantities, viz., barwood or camwood (Baphia nitida), African mahogany (Swietenia Senegalensis), and African teak (Oldfieldia africana). The low-lying portions are malarious, where the mangroves and other swamp-loving trees abound. The baobab (Adansonia digitata), which grows also on the east coast and in Nubia, attains a large size, with a huge rapidly tapering trunk, and yields a strong fibre from the bark. From the compact green appearance of the foliage of a mass of baobab Cape de Verd is said to have received its name. The Guinea palm (Elais guinensis) abounds on the western coast, and England imports annually from Africa 10,000 tons of the palm oil. Valuable gums, as copal, &c., are also obtained from both the east and west coasts; and with the prospective opening up of Central Africa many valuable forest products will certainly come into com

merce.

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Ashantee may almost be described as one continuous forest, posed of tall and massive trees, with creepers extending like cordage from one to another, and so matting the foliage together overhead that a green roof is formed almost impenetrable to the sun. Here and there are chinks and skylights through which the sun shoots in and falls upon the tree trunks and ground in gleams and splashes of crystal light. There is not much undergrowth, for that kind of vegetation cannot exist without sunshine, and in the virgin forest is always a kind of twilight" (Winwood Reade).

Lower Guinea.-Welwitsch describes forests extending 700 miles along the coast from the Congo to the Cunene River. These consist of Diospyros, Caesalpiniec, Combretacea, and Celastrinea, the higher mountains behind being covered with extensive forests of the same families, with Sterculia, Cynomatix, and Copaifera Mopane, Benth. He saw ten miles exclusively covered with Hyphane cucifera, Pers., and adds: "I conclude that these palm forests covered in past ages a great portion of the coast districts of Angola, where at present they only appear as dwarf bushes without stems, and never blossom.' The only tree which braves the general dwindling is the Adansonia, which is seen in full splendour throughout the district. The export of gum copal from Benguela is about 1,600,000 tb per annum. (Jour. Linn. Soc., ix. 288.) South Africa has suffered much from denudation, and according to the Colonial Botanists' reports many of its evil effects have followed, such as the frequent occurrence of sudden and destructive floods, and occasional droughts of extreme severity. But South Africa possesses a great variety of forest trees, yielding timber of great strength and beauty; they are, however, only found in mountain gorges and over a limited area. (Harvey and Sonder's Flora Capensis.)

Mauritius, with its insular position and humid climate, possessed a most luxuriant indigenous vegetation, reaching to the water's edge; but the aboriginal forests have disappeared, and the scarcity of wood for building and fuel has necessitated an annual outlay of £20,000 for imported timber. To supply the wants of the people, to provide shelter, and to improve the sanitary condition of the island, the local Government adopted measures some years ago for forming plantations on the higher elevations. The Australian eucalypti flourish well, and the planting around Port Louis has been attended with marked advantage to the town. (Flora of Mauritius, Baker.) Through the agency of fire and goats, supplemented by the rapid spread of introduced plants, the rich primitive forests of Rodriguez and St Helena have likewise become extinct. (Hooker's Insular Floras.)

Madagascar has been celebrated for its luxuriant vegetation, and in the north and east, where the climate is moist, magnificent forests clothe the hills. Elsewhere vegetation forms a narrow belt along the shore. The Ravenala, or traveller's tree, is characteristic of the island. (Rev. W. Ellis, Rev. Dr Mullens.)

From this sketch of the principal forest lands of the world it appears that, although the progress of civilization and the increase of population have greatly diminished the area of forests in many countries, they still cover a large portion of the earth's surface, and the necessity of maintaining them is now generally recognized. It is beyond doubt that these vast wooded tracts affect most powerfully the economy of the globe. The direct influences may be summarized from the results arrived at by Humboldt and others: (1) By screening the soil from the heat of the sun's rays; (2) by the immense surface these leaves offer

to the cooling process of radiation; and (3) by the copious evaporation of moisture from the leaves. Some of the indirect benefits which thus accrue from the presence of forests may be mentioned, such as the maintenance of equable temperature and humidity, the affording of protection and shelter, the control of the regular flow of rivers, and the supply of perennial springs which fertilize and beautify the country. It is the climatic and physical importance of a due proportion of wooded land, independent of the utility of forest products in innumerable arts which now contribute to our comfort and progress, that has at length awakened most of the civilized Governments to the necessity of protecting forests from ruthless spoliation. The following general conclusions adopted in 1851 by the British Association committee already referred to contain principles which, although limited in the first instance to British India, have been found more or less applicable to all countries:

1. That over large portions of the globe there is still an almost uncontrolled destruction of the indigenous forests in progress, from the wasteful habits of the population. 2. That where conservancy has been introduced, considerable improvement has already taken place.

3. That these improvements may be extended by a rigid enforcement of the present regulations, and the enactment of additional provisions of the following character, viz.,-careful maintenance of the forest by valuation surveys and working plans, and by the preservation or plantation of seedlings in place of mature trees removed, -nurseries being established; prohibition of cutting until trees are well grown, with rare and special exceptions for peculiar purposes; and provision, in the case of trees yielding gums, resins, or other valuable products, that greater care be taken in tapping or notching the trees, most serious damage in some countries resulting from neglect in this operation.

4. That especial attention should be given to the preservation and maintenance of the forests occupying tracts unsuited for other culture, whether by reason of altitude or peculiarities of physical

structure.

5. That in a country to which the maintenance of its water supplies is of extreme importance, the indiscriminate clearing of forests around the localities whence those supplies are derived is greatly to be deprecated.

6. That it is a duty to prevent the excessive waste of wood, the timbers useful for building and manufactures being reserved and husbanded.

7. That as much local ignorance prevails as to the number and nature of valuable forest products, measures should be taken to supply through the officers in charge information calculated to diminish such ignorance.

Necessity has caused the adoption of these principles in many lands of both the New and the Old World, and forestry will henceforth be studied as a science as well as practised as an art. It is manifestly of the greatest importauce that, in the progressive development of great countries, just and enlightened principles should influence the views and actions of those who are charged with the duty of advising Government in regard to the material resources committed to their care for behoof of present and future generations.

For greater detail and more exhaustive treatment of the subject, the reader is referred to the following works in addition to those already alluded to:-GREAT BRITAIN. Selby, A History of British Forest Trees, 1842; Marsh, The Earth as modified by Human Action, 1874; Brown, The Forester, 1861; Journal of Forestry, monthly.-FRANCE. Mathieu, Flore Forestière, 1877; Jules Clavé, Etudes sur l'Économie Forestière, 1862; Nanquette, "Cours d'Amén agement des Forêts," 1868; Annuaire des Eaux et des Forêts; A. Parade-Lorentz, Cours Élémentaire de Culture des Bois, 1860; Becquerel, Mémoire sur les forêts et leur influence climatérique, 1868; Maury, Les Forêts de la Gaule, 1867; Croumbie Brown, Leo, Forst-Statistik Reboisement in France, 1876.-GERMANY. über Deutschland und Oesterreich-Ungarn, 1874; Schneider, Forstund Jagd-Kalender für das Deutsche Reich; Fischbach, Lehrbuch der Forst-wissenschaft, 1865; Hartig, Lehrbuch für Förster, SWITZERLAND. 1861; Judeich, Die Forst-Einrichtung, 1871. Bericht an den hohen Bundesrath über die Hochgebirge Waldungen, 1862.-ITALY. Di Berenger, Studii di Archeologia Forestale, 1863; Raccolta delle Leggi Forestali, 1866; Siemoni, Manuale d'Arte Forestale. (H. C.)

Forest Law.

One of the most cherished prerogatives of the king of England, at the time when his power was at the highest, was that of converting any portion of the country into a forest in which he might enjoy the pleasures of the chase. The earliest struggles between the king and the people testify to the extent to which this prerogative became a public grievance, and the charter by which its exercise was bounded (Charta de Foresta) was in substance part of the great constitutional code imposed by his barons upon King John. At common law it appears to have been the right of the king to make a forest where he pleased, provided that certain legal formalities were observed. The king having a continual care for the preservation of the realm, and for the peace and quiet of his subjects, he had therefore amongst many privileges this prerogative, viz., to have his place of recreation wheresoever he would appoint.1 Land once afforested became subject to a peculiar system of laws, which, as well as the formalities required to constitute a valid afforestment, have been carefully ascertained by the Anglo-Norman lawyers. A forest," says Manwood, "is a certain territory of woody grounds and fruitful pastures, privileged for wild beasts and fowls of forest, chase, and warren to rest, and abide there in the safe protection of the king, for his delight and pleasure; which territory of ground so privileged is mered and bounded with unremovable marks, meres, and boundaries, either known by matter of record or by prescription; and also replenished with wild beasts of venery or chase, and with great coverts of vert, for the succour of the said beasts there to abide: for the preservation and continuance of which said place, together with the vert and venison there are particular officers, laws, and privileges belonging to the same, requisite for that purpose, and proper only to a forest and to no other place."2 And the same author distinguishes a forest, as "the highest franchise of princely pleasure," from the inferior franchises of chase, park, and warren-named in the order of their importance. The forest embraces all these, and it is distinguished by having laws and courts of its own, according to which offenders are justiceable. An offender in a chase is to be punished by the common law; an offender in a forest by the forest law. A chase is much the same as a park, only the latter is enclosed, and all of them are distinguished according to the class of wild beasts to which the privilege extended. Thus beasts of forest (the "five wild beasts of venery") were the hart, the hind, the hare, the boar, and the wolf. The beasts of chase were also five, viz., the buck, the doe, the fox, the marten, and the roe. The beasts and fowls of warren were the hare, the coney, the pheasant, and the partridge. (See GAME LAWS.)

The courts of the forest were three in number, viz., the court of attachments, swanimote, and justice-seat. The court of attachments (called also the wood-mote) is held for the foresters to bring in their attachments concerning any hurt done to vert or venison (in viridi et venatione) in the forest, and for the verderers to receive and mark the same, but no conviction takes place. The swanimote is the court to which all the freeholders within the forest owe suit and service, and of which the verderers are the judges. In this court all offences against the forest laws may be tried, but no judgment or punishment follows. This is reserved for the justice-seat, to which the rolls of offences presented at the court of attachment, and tried at the swanimote, are presented by verderers. The justice-seat is the court of the chief justice in eyre, who, says Coke, "is commonly a man of greater dignity than knowledge of the laws of the forests; and therefore where justice-seats are to be held

some other persons whom the king shall appoint are associated with him, who together are to determine omnia placita forestœ.” There were two chief justices for the forests intra and ultra Trentam respectively. The necessary officers of a forest are a steward, verderers, foresters, regarders, agisters, and woodwards. The verderer was a judicial officer chosen in full county by the freeholders in the same manner as the coroner. His office was to view and receive the attachments of the foresters, and to mark them on his rolls. A forester was 66 an officer sworn to preserve the vert and venison in the forest, and to attend upon the wild beasts within his bailwick." The regarders were of the nature of visitors: their duty was to make a regard (visitatio nemorum) every third year, to inquire of all offences, and of the concealment of such offences by any officer of the forest. The business of the agister was to look after the pasturage of the forest, and to receive the payments for the same by persons entitled to pasture their cattle in the forests. Both the pasturage and the payment were called "agistment."

The legal conception of a forest was thus that of a definite territory within which the code of the forest law prevailed to the exclusion of the common law. The ownership of the soil might be in any one, but the rights of the proprietor were limited by the laws made for the protection of the king's wild beasts. These laws, enforced by fines often arbitrary and excessive, were a great grievance to the unfortunate owners of land within or in the neighourhood of the forest. The offence of "purpresture" may be cited as an example. This was an encroachment on the forest rights, by building a house within the forest, and it made no difference whether the land belonged to the builder or not. In either case it was an offence punishable by fines at discretion. And if a man converted woodlands within the forest into arable land, he was guilty of the offence known as "assarting," whether the covert belonged to himself or not.

3

The

The hardships of the forest laws under the Norman kings, and their extension to private estates by the process of afforestment, were among the grievances which united the barons and people against the king in the reign of John. The Great Charter of King John contains clauses relating to the forest laws, but no separate charter of the forest. first charter of the forest is that of Henry III., issued in 1217. "As an important piece of legislation," says Professor Stubbs, "it must be compared with the forest assize of 1184, and with 44th, 47th, and 48th clauses of the charter of John. It is observable that most of the abuses which are remedied by it are regarded as having sprung up since the accession of Henry II.; but the most offensive afforestations, have been made under Richard and John. These latter are at once disafforested; but those of Henry II. only so far as they had been carried out to the injury of the landowners and outside of the royal demesne." Land which had thus been once forest land and was afterwards disafforested was known as purlieu-derived by Manwood from the French pur and lieu, i.e., “a place exempt from the forest." The forest laws still applied in a modified manner to the purlieu. The benefit of the disafforestment existed only for the owner of the lands; as to all other persons the land was forest still, and the king's wild beasts were to "have free recourse therein and safe return to the forest, without any hurt or destruction other than by the owners of the lands in the purlieu where they shall be found, and that only to hunt and chase them back again towards the forest without any forestalling" (Manwood, On the Forest Laws-article "Purlieu ").

The revival of the forest laws was one of the means

3 Documents Illustrative of English History, p. 338.

resorted to by Charles I. for raising a revenue independently of parliament, and the royal forests in Essex were so enlarged that they were hyperbolically said to include the whole county. The earl of Southampton was nearly ruined by a decision that stripped him of his estate near the New Forest. The boundaries of Rockingham Forest were increased from six miles to sixty, and enormous fines imposed on the trespassers,-Lord Salisbury being assessed in £20,000, Lord Westmoreland in £19,000, Sir Christopher Hatton in £12,000 (Hallam's Constitutional History of England, c. viii.). By the statute 16 Charles I. c. 16 the royal forests were determined for ever according to their boundaries in the twentieth year of James, all subsequent enlargements being annulled. (E. R.) FÖRFAR, or ANGUS, a maritime county of Scotland, is situated between 56° 27′ and 56° 59′ N. lat., and between 2° 26′ and 3° 24′ W. long. It, is bounded on the N. by the shires of Aberdeen and Kincardine, on the E. by the German Ocean, on the S. by the Firth of Tay, which separates it from Fife, and on the W. by Perthshire. Its greatest length from north to south is about 37 miles, and its greatest breadth from east to west 27 miles; its average length is about 35 miles, and its average breadth about 25 miles. The area comprises 890 square miles or 569,840 imperial acres.

Forfar presents great variety of surface. The northern division, comprising nearly half the county, is occupied by the Binchinnin hills or "Braes of Angus," which form part of the Grampian mountain range, and join the "Braes of Mar" in Aberdeenshire. At the head of Glen Clova they rise boldly and abruptly, and are clothed in summer by a green covering of grass; but for the most part they are rounded and rather tame, and covered with a thin coat of moorish soil bearing stunted heath. The highest summit is Glas Meal, 3502 feet, and a large number are over 3000 feet. The range is intersected by several wooded and fruitful valleys, the principal of which are Glen Isla, Glen Prosen, Glen Clova, Glen Lethnot, and Glen Esk. These are watered by streams that rise in the west and north, and commonly flow south-east, receiving the mountain torrents in their progress. Some miles south from the Grampians, and parallel to them, there is another and lower mountain range called the Sidlaw hills, the higher eminences generally covered with moor and heatlı, but the lower ridges cultivated or wooded. Their highest summits are Auchterhouse hill (1399 feet), and Gallow hill (1242); and a considerable number are above 1100 feet. The breadth of this range is from 3 to 6 miles. Between these two mountain districts lies Strathmore or the Great Valley, as the name means in Gaelic, or, as it is commonly called, the "Howe of Angus," forming a continuation of the "Howe of the Mearns," and having a breadth of from 6 to 8 miles,- a district beautifully diversified by gentle eminences, fertile fields, plantations, villages, and gentlemen's seats, very little of it being 200 feet above sea-level. From the Sidlaw Hills to the German Ocean on the east and the Firth of Tay on the south there extends a tract of low and level ground, varying in breadth from 3 to 8 miles, and comprehending about a fourth part of the whole county. The southern shore is level and sandy, but from Arbroath to Lunan Bay the coast line is formed of sandstone cliffs, in some parts very steep and precipitous, and containing a number of caves, most of which are only accessible from the sea.

The principal rivers are the Isla, the South Esk, and the North Esk. The Isla rises in the Grampians in the northwest of the county, and flows from north to south through the glen which bears its name, until at Ruthven it bends to the westward and joins the Tay in Perthshire. Below the Bridge of Craigs it has cut a chasm, in some places

more than 100 feet in depth, through a barrier of porphyry and gravel stone rocks, where it forms cascades of singular beauty. The South Esk has its source in the Grampians a few miles east of the Isla, and flows south-east till it reaches the valley of Strathmore, after which it takes an eastward course, and passing Brechin discharges itself into the basin of Montrose. The North Esk issues from Loch Lee, and, flowing first eastward and then south-east, forms for about 10 miles of its course the boundary between this county and that of Kincardine, and falls into the sea about 3 miles north-east of Montrose. Among the smaller streams are the Dean, a tributary of the Isla; the Prosen, which falls into the South Esk; the Mark, the Westwater, and the Cruick, which join the North Esk; the Dighty, which flows south-eastwards into the Firth of Tay at Broughty Ferry; and the Lunan, which empties itself into the German Ocean at Lunan Bay. There are a number of small lochs, the principal being Loch Lee, Lintrathen Loch, and the lochs of Forfar, of Rescobie, and of Balgavies.

Geology and Minerals.—In the northern portion of the Forfarshire Grampians the prevailing rock is granite, some of it very beautiful, and containing in its cavities topazes and rock crystals called "cairngorms," from the mountain of that name in Aberdeenshire. Other portions of the Grampians are composed of micaceous schist and porphyry, dykes of the latter in some places intersecting the former. Laminated mica is found in veins in mica slate, and rock crystals are found in the beds of torrents. Lead was at one time wrought at Gilfianan, above the old castle of Invermark, in the upper part of the parish of Lochlee; and according to Edward, in his Description of Angus published in 1678, it yielded one sixty-fourth part of silver. It has also been wrought at Ardoch near Millden on the Esk. Limestone occurs in various parts of the Grampians, and jasper is frequently embedded in the micaceous schist. In the lower portions of the Grampians pudding-stone prevails, and afterwards sandstone. Clay marl is found both in Strathmore and the Sidlaw hills. Shell marl abounds in the beds of the various lochs, some of which have been partly or wholly drained to render it easy of access. The Sidlaw hills are chiefly composed of sandstone of various colours. Sandstone flags are quarried in large quantities on the hill of Balmashanner, in the moor to the south of Forfar, in the parish of Carmylie, and along the southern declivity of the Sidlaw hills. In this sandstone district lies the famous Forfarshire fishbed, containing the earliest known vestiges of vertebrate life. In the maritime district there are numerous beds of red sandstone, which, however, are frequently intersected by whinstone and porphyry. The principal limeworks are in this division, at Hedderwick near Montrose, and at Boddin in the parish of Craig.

Climate and Agriculture.-The climate differs considerably in various parts of the county; but is on the whole salubrious and favourable for agricultural pursuits. According to observations taken by Alexander Brown, LL.D., at Arbroath, for ten years, from March 1868 to March 1878, the mean of the barometer, reduced to sea-level and a temperature of 32° F. was 29.83 inches. The mean temperature was in spring 46°1 F., summer 58°.3, autumn 47°.7, winter 39°·0. The mean annual rainfall was 29.8 inches. The average annual number of days whereon the wind was from the N. was 29, N.E. 15, E. 26, S. E. 28, S. 69, S. W. 36, W. 78, and N.W. 38, while 46 were calm. In Strathmore, owing to the proximity of the Grampians, the rainfall is considerably greater than in the maritime district. In these two districts the harvests are nearly as early as in

1 See paper by James Powrie, F.G.S., F.R.S.E., in Transactions of Edinburgh Geological Society for 1870.