BOOK IV. 



RAVAGERS OF FORESTS. 



Under this title the reader naturally expects to see on 

 the stage animals the size of which must be in proportion 

 to their formidable powers of destruction. But it is quite 

 the contrary. It is not the auroch, with its shaggy mane, 

 nor the powerful stag, nor the wild boar, that ravages or de- 

 stroys our forests, but tiny insects which cause the death of 

 its aged denizens. 



If, when the warm breath of spring drives away the rigor 

 of winter and renews life in the fields, we enter one of the 

 great coniferous woods of Germany, we are astonished at 

 the tumult and activity which prevail in lieu of the silence 

 we went there to seek. Everything is movement. 



Groups of woodmen, foresters, and overseers move about 

 by hundreds, and stretch away like columns of skirmishers ; 

 it is a complete army in the field, which opens out wherever 

 there is a large space, and of which the wings are some- 

 times lost in the windings of the roads, or hidden by the 

 projection of some hillock. This mass of men always moves 

 in order, distributed in troops commanded by experienced 

 leaders. They are all provided with long weapons, which 

 at a distance might be taken for lances. 



