322 Major F. Bailey's Forest Tour 



to walk across the hills to Aubagne, in order to take the 

 train to Toulon. The first thing that struck us, was that 

 the moment the limits of the State forest were passed, we 

 had left behind us all trace of the remarkable vegetation 

 we had observed the day before. This may no doubt be 

 partly accounted for by protection being less rigid in the 

 private forest we were entering ; but it seemed also 

 probable that the natural conditions had changed, the soil 

 being no longer moistened by springs issuing from under 

 the cliffs. We were now in a forest of Scots pine, sub- 

 jected to uncontrolled though moderate selection fellings, 

 which, notwithstanding tlie entrance of sheep, permit the 

 maintenance of a fair crop of trees of small size, the larger 

 ones being capable of yielding useful planks. The popula- 

 tion is scanty, fires being unknown, and there are very few 

 goats, which it is said do not thrive here. There was a 

 fair undergrowth of young pine mixed with juniper, and 

 wherever the cover was light the ground was carpeted with 

 green herbs. Further on some oaks appeared, one fine old 

 tree 20 feet in girth remaining to testify that they were 

 indeed " giants in the earth " in former days. Tins forest 

 stretches up to the foot of the high perpendicular limestone 

 cliffs, above which there is a communal forest, managed 

 on the selection method, and said to contain somewhat 

 better trees than those we saw, but unfortunately we were 

 unable to visit it. Before crossing a ridge we came upon an 

 abandoned mine, with a coal seam 8 inches thick, which it 

 does not pay to work. The descent was a very abrupt one, 

 through a simple coppice of evergreen oak, cut at the 

 age of twenty years ; but the ground was very rocky, 

 and the crop thin. Lower down we saw isolated Aleppo 

 pines standing among the oak coppice, and there was a 

 good deal of the dwarf oak, the evergreen leaves of which 

 exercise an important influence in opposing the spread of 

 forest fires. The wild, rocky aspect of the hills, and the 

 general appearance of the vegetation, reminded some of us 

 very much of parts of India ; but as we approached the 

 stream at the bottom of the valley all this changed, and 

 we were able to note the great difference produced in 

 the growth of the trees by the moister soil. Here were 

 pines of large size, mixed with elm, poplar, chestnut, and 



