CONTINENTAL NOTES FRANCE. 53 



6. Continental Notes— France. 



By A. G. HOBART-HAMPDBN. 



I. — All the world will now be hunting for timber, and since 

 the forests of Europe (except perhaps those of European Russia, 

 at present more or less useless because of civil war) must have 

 been terribly overcut or destroyed, it will be in regions outside 

 Europe that the search will chiefly be made. Therefore a note 

 in the Revue des Eaux et Forets on the forests of eastern Siberia, 

 by M. Arnould, should be useful. The forests of Russian Asia 

 are believed to cover 888 million acres, but of course the greater 

 part is difficult of access. On the east coast of Siberia, however, 

 and along the Amur river the difficulty is less. Nearly the whole 

 littoral is forest-clad. Here there are said to be some 25 million 

 acres. The most important and abundant species are the Korean 

 pine (Pinus corensis — P. Koraiensis ?) and the ash (Fraxintis 

 manshurica) — to use M. Arnould's terms — and following them 

 the oak (Quercus mongolica) and the walnut (Juglans matishurica). 

 The pine is very light (and so easily transported), with a very soft 

 and homogeneous wood, which nevertheless is very resistant to 

 compression and to rupture. The oak is very hard and strong, 

 but very heavy. The ash is a little less heavy than the oak, 

 but even more resistant to compression and rupture. There 

 are other timbers very suitable for cabinet-making, but it is 

 building timbers that we shall be needing. 



The forests of the Transbaikal Province are supposed to cover 

 some 127,400 sq. miles, or 65 per cent, of the province. The 

 species are Scots pine, larch (Larix dahuricd), Cembran pine, 

 a silver fir (Abies sifo'rica), a spruce (Picea obovata), birch and 

 aspen. The country lacks means of transport, but there is the 

 Siberian railway and some navigable rivers. It is mountainous, 

 but not excessively so. 



The forests of the province of Irkutsk have an area of some 

 37,450 sq. miles, without counting one district for which no 

 information is available. The species are pretty much the 

 same as in Transbaikalia. As in the latter province the 

 population is very small. There are a number of large rivers 

 running north and some railways. 



II. — M. P. Fatou, in describing the course of thinnings in a 

 forest of beech and oak, states his opinion that a great gain in 



