A FOREST TOUR AMONG THE DUNES OF GASCONY. 307 
in detail, the whole operation being carried out in our presence, 
lt has this great advantage, that the resin is not mixed with any 
large amount of foreign substances, and that, as it rans down the 
length of a single year’s cut only, the loss by evaporation is less 
than formerly, when it was collected in a hole at the foot of 
the tree. The collection, which is usually done by contract, can 
also be much better carried out and supervised under the new 
method. It is said that a man and his wife can manage from 
2500 to 3000 trees a year, 
It is very difficult to give figures accurately representing the 
annual yield of these forests in crude resin, but it is put down 
at from 200 to 400 lbs, ver acre, the price obtained at the factory 
being from 14s. 6d. to 16s. 6d. per 100 Ibs. It is also stated that 
a tree, tapped so as not to cause its death, yields annually from 
64 to 10 lbs, of resin, a very large one having been known to give 
about 16 lbs. Some figures relating to last season’s sales in the 
Gartey and Pilat blocks of the forest of La Teste may prove of 
interest. The right to tap and fell, within five years, 7528 trees, 
aged from sixty to eighty years, and constituting the final felling 
on an area of 118 acres, was sold for £1592. This gives nearly 
£13, 10s. per acre, and a little more than 4s, 2d. per tree. The 
yield was estimated to be 245,055 cubic feet of timber, 125,158 
cubic feet (stacked) of firewood, and 2082 ewts. of crude turpen- 
tine. It must not be forgotten that the above is the revenue for 
the last five years only; previously to this, thinnings have been 
disposed of, and the trees now sold have been tapped since they 
were about thirty years old. 
MANUFACTURE OF RESIN. 
When travelling from Bordeaux to Arcachon, we left the rail- 
way at La Teste to visit a resin factory close to the station. 
The crude resin, brought to the factory in casks, is, notwith- 
standing the precautions taken, found to be mixed with a cer- 
tain quantity of foreign substances, such as earth, chips, bark, 
leaves, insects, etc. After adding about 20 per cent. of the 
solidified resin (barras), scraped from the cuts, it is heated mode- 
rately in an open caldron, so as to bring it into a liquid state, 
when the heavier impurities sink to the bottom, the lighter ones 
rising to the surface. The liquified resin thus obtained consists of 
two distinct substances, viz., colophany, which is solid at the 
