2 24 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBOR ICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



safely be stated that a densely wooded country is far more 

 easily held against all comers than any other. Waterless 

 deserts have their advantages, but Britain is not of these. 



There is a remarkable instance in the world of to-day of a 

 country rendered impregnable and unassailable by a dense 

 thorny scrub clothing its rugged mountains. I refer to the island 

 of Hayti with San Domingo, the Hispaniola of Columbus and 

 Cortes. Probably there are few spots so rich in mineral wealth 

 and agricultural possibilities, and yet the island is abandoned to 

 a small population of imported negroes, degenerate, debased, 

 and unprogressive. Spain has spent millions of money and 

 rivers of blood in the endeavour to refix her hold on San 

 Domingo. At one time the great Napoleon seriously con- 

 templated the recovery of Hayti for France, but when he came 

 to consider the details of a campaign in the dense tangled 

 mountains, his own good sense and his remembrances of youth 

 in Corsica caused him to dismiss the project as impracticable. 



In the neighbouring island of Jamaica, I had a small experience 

 of the difficulty of penetrating the same thorny growth, called 

 by the Spanish " chaparal." It was necessary to connect two 

 forts three miles apart by a narrow bridle-path, and a company 

 of native sappers, commanded by Captain Friend (now a General 

 in Edinburgh), faced the task but found it insuperable. Nor 

 was it till we unearthed a certain negro family, skilled in the use 

 of the Spanish knife called the " machete," that any progress 

 could be made. This apparently trifling task occupied many 

 weeks. 



Of course such conditions could not be created, nor would 

 they be desirable, in Great Britain. They are mentioned 

 as extreme cases causing extreme difficulties to military or 

 indeed any human progress. In their measure, however, all 

 forests present obstacles to the advance of armies. More 

 especially do they do so when disposed in belts across or astride 

 of the main roads of advance, confining such advance to the 

 roads themselves and so narrowing the front of advance. The 

 defiles of a forest can of course be easily blocked by " abattis " 

 of felled trees. Further, the dispositions of a defensive force 

 within a forest are not readily observed, even by balloons or 

 modern aeroplanes. 



Further, also, a defensive force, despatched to bivouac in the 

 field, is largely protected against the inclemency of the weather 



