LE go J 
“ oaks; which, together with fifty beeches, are ftill 
* annually affigned.” 
To what a ftate of devaftation then muft fixty- 
three thoufand eight hundred and forty-five acres 
of foreft-land be reduced, when they cannot afford 
one oak from every thoufand acres for the yearly 
fupply of the King’s navy ?* Were devaftation con- 
fined to a fingle foreft only, the confequence might 
not be much dreaded: but when we fee it pervade 
the land; when private woods, as well as royal 
forefts, groan under the woodman’s axe; when the 
fquirrels, which ufed to fkip from oak to oak, are 
driven “to walk on foot” in fearch of firs; it is 
time for us to reflect on the danger of our fituation, 
and onthe neceflity of refraining from felling half- 
formed fticks; a growing mifchief, alarmingly in- 
creafed of late by the high price and great fcarcity 
‘of bark, which has within thefe few years doubled 
its former value, and, as your correfpondent admits, 
‘eaufed ‘the ‘fall of numerous oaks in Devonfhire and 
‘Cornwall; which from his account muft have been 
all fap, or bléea, of little prefent worth as ‘timber, 
but might, if left ftanding, have been the hopes 
and fafeguard of futuregenerations. Suchdeftruc- 
‘tion has been'too prevalent in the Eaftern, as well as 
Weftern counties: to the ftate of timber in the 
Northern, I profefs myfelf a ftranger. But when 
— 
+ Gilpin’s Foreft Scenery, vol. ii. p.27. 
affured 
