CONTINENTAL NOTES FRANCE. 5 1 



power for centuries till fourteen years before the Peace of 

 Westphalia, when Haguenau placed itself under the protection 

 of France. (The Peace of Westphalia was in 1648, and it was 

 then that Alsace was joined to France.) This voluntary act of 

 the town seems to have greatly pleased Louis XIV, for when 

 the old question of rights in the forest again arose he deliberately 

 gave the town the half share it holds to-day, which was very 

 much more than can have been expected. 



The forest stands about 40 metres (130 feet) above sea-level, 

 and is in many parts marshy, which may be partly the reason it 

 escaped destruction in the middle of a populated country. The 

 surface soil is partly sand and partly clay, and often the two 

 mixed, while beneath is an impermeable blue clay, a metre 

 (3^ feet) down on an average. In the north of the forest oil has 

 been found in valuable quantity under this blue clay. Tiles 

 and pottery are made from this clay. The wetness of the forest 

 is a considerable difficulty, and weed growth is strong. The 

 Germans, who classify soils in five classes, placed 43 % in the 

 second, and 57 % in the third category. The French had a 

 system of drains, but these were badly kept up by the Germans. 

 The climate is hot in summer, and frosts are harmful in the 

 lower parts, and particularly in that they spoil the flowering of 

 the oak and beech, so that heavy seed years of these species 

 are rare. Great damage is done by storms from the west. The 

 Germans seem to have reduced this damage by prescribing 

 fellings from east to west and north to south, and by reducing 

 the size of the felling areas in one and the same place. The 

 rainfall is 35 inches. Among enemies of the forest are roebuck, 

 rabbits (only a few), hares, pigs, and black game ; also cock- 

 chafers, hylobws, and other insects ; also Fames ajinosus, " rouge 

 du pin," and some other fungi; and, finally, fires, which occur 

 annually among the pine. In this last connection we may note 

 the use made of telephones for protective purposes. 



The species consist of, roughly, 50 % Scots pine, 30 % oak 

 (both kinds), 8 % hornbeam, 6 % beech, and 6 % other species. 

 The Scots pine has long been here, as its stumps are found more 

 than a metre below the clay. Our author says that Haguenau 

 is the south-west limit of the natural habitat of the plains Scots 

 pine. This species is said to be mature at 120 years, when it is 

 90 to 100 feet high, with a diameter of 2 feet at chest-height. 

 The stems are often badly shaped (perhaps by reason of the 



