104 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



XII. The Forests of the Basses Pyrenees. By George Cadell, 

 late Indian Forest Department. 



Of the Forest Area and its Distribution. 



In the department of the Basses Pyrenees we find two distinct 

 regions which have been sharply delimitated by nature, the one 

 which touches the Spanish frontier being mountainous, and the 

 other consisting of isolated hills and plains. The pi-oportion of 

 forests to the total area, which is 17 per cent, for the whole of 

 France, rises here to 20 per cent. Agriculturally, the land is 

 largely pastoral, and is very much parcelled out, a small appanage 

 of forest being as it were attached to each holding. So much is 

 this the case, that without counting the large amount of the 

 forest which is under the control of the Communes, there are no 

 less than 33,000 private forest proprietors, who hold between 

 them 73 per cent of the forests of the plains. On the mountain 

 slopes the forests belong principally to the Comoiunes, the pro- 

 portion being no less than 85 per cent., and as the Communes do 

 not in many cases submit their foi'ests to the management of the 

 special department, it follows that little more than one-third of 

 the forest area is under expert surveillance. Further, it is not 

 always found advisable, or, if advisable, possible, to maintain a 

 strict forest regime. The woodland, and even the forests in the 

 plains, are not cleared under a hard and fast revolution, but as 

 exigency demands. They may rightly be considered as existing 

 for the requirements of agriculture, and not for the growth and 

 production of timber. In this respect they differ from those of 

 the neighbouring district of the Landes, where the welfare of the 

 trees is the chief care of the Forest Department, and where these 

 trees, the well-known maritime pine, repay both by their resin 

 and their wood the care bestowed upon them. 



Of the Soil. 



The soil is less calcareous than is generally the case in France, 

 most of the calcareous soil being found on the mountains. In 

 the plains most of the forests rest on arenaceous, argillaceous, 

 and gravelly accumulations of Tertiary age. The proportion of 

 alluvial deposits is very small. 



