18 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



railway line which leads to Innspruck and across the Brenner Pass 

 to Italy, there is a large area of Spruce forest, called the Ebers- 

 berger Park, which I visited in 1889. It is one compact mass, 

 covering about 16,000 acres. At the time of my visit the out- 

 skirts of that Spruce forest were well stocked and in good 

 condition, but in the interior every tree was bare; a dense forest 

 of tall trees, all leafless, like a huge churchyard. This was the 

 work of the caterpillar of a moth known as the Nun, Liparis 

 monacha. In moderate numbers this insect is found everywhere 

 in forests of the spruce and of the Scots pine, but at times, when 

 in a certain locality the seasons during successive years have been 

 favourable for its development, and less favourable for the develop- 

 ment of its enemies, it multiplies in an extraordinary manner. 

 The moths are white, they were swarming about like the flakes of 

 snow in a snow-storm. You will ask why the outside of the 

 forest was not eaten bare by the caterpillars. They dislike wind, 

 and love snug comfortable places, hence they avoid the outside of 

 the wood ; and in a hilly country they avoid ridges and exposed 

 peaks. 



In the " Ebersberger Park" 4700 acres had been eaten com- 

 pletely bare, not a vestige of a leaf being left on the trees ; and a 

 further area of about 7100 acres was severely attacked. Similar 

 damage had been done by the "Nun" in other large forest 

 districts in Southern Germany and in Austria. The forest is the 

 property of the State, and nothing remained except to cut the 

 whole of the timber at once. To wait and to cut the trees 

 gradually was out of the question. The timber would have 

 deteriorated and the bark beetles would have multiplied to such 

 an extent as to endanger the existence of other forests in the 

 vicinity. The calamity was met with wonderful skill and energy. 

 A branch railway was built from the main line into the heart of 

 the forest, and small forest tramways were laid through the 

 different compartments. Saw-mills were erected, and the whole of 

 the timber was sold only a little below its usual market price, and 

 the loss, therefore, was not considerable. The timber of that 

 forest has a good reputation. A great deal of it went to Italy, 

 and the smaller stuff" was taken up by those excellent allies of the 

 German forester, the paper-pulp manufacturers. The newspapers 

 of the present day, The Scotsman and The Times, are, as you 

 know, printed to a great extent on paper made of the spruce 

 wood. Some people imagine that with the steadily growing con- 



