FOEEST WEALTH. J ] 9 



others. The northern slopes of these mountains are almost everywhere covered with forest. 

 Here the forest vegetation Is very various, but conifers prevail, such as the larch, pitchpine, 

 pine, cedar. They yield a timber of excellent quality, but the exploitation of mountain 

 forest presents gi-eat difficulties. Such plantations are remote from inhabited spots, the felling 

 of the timber upon the steep slopes is accompanied with no' small risk. Xot seldom the trees 

 grow upon cones with such abrupt sides that the felled tree falls down below and is broken 

 into shivers, damaging at the same time all the small saplings it meets with on its way. 

 The rivers in the mountainous places are full of rapids and do not permit of raftage. In the 

 territories of Semipalatinsk and Semirechensk the Kirghiz transport logs from the defiles upon 

 camels. The mountain forests have an extremely great importance in the economy of the 

 country. Independently of the fact that with the carrying through of the railway there will 

 appear private initiative in the exploitation of the forest wealth, the forests covering the 

 steep sides of the mountains serve as a mighty regulator of the flushing of rivers and of 

 the humidity of the atmosphere. Hence the proper management of the mountain forests and 

 their defense from destruction constitute a pressing need of Siberia. 



The forest ai-eas of Siberia which have brought in, and in many places even where they 

 do not bring in any revenue to the Crown, were for a long time free from any surveillance. Even 

 now there is a direction in the law to the effect that «the inhabitants of Siberia are allowed the 

 free use of the forests for all their needs and for the construction of vessels, without payment (Art. 

 411, Forest Code, ed. 1876). The law regarding the Siberian forests as a «gift of God», 

 according to the expression of the peasants, or as a free gift like air and water, it was not 

 to be expected that the local population should take any trouble to preserve them; the heap- 

 ing up of windfalls, frequent fires, unsystematic felling, the pasturing of cattle upon the 

 nearest clearings, have brought the majority of timber estates to a chaotic condition, while 

 in the more inhabited parts of Siberia even a lack of forest has made itself felt. 



From the beginning of the sixties the Government began to trouble itself about the 

 introduction of some order into the use of the timber of Western Siberia. In 1863 in the 

 governments of Tomsk and Tobolsk, and in the territories of Akmolinsk and Semirechensk, 

 temporary regulations were introduced establishing a tax per stump and sagene for the use 

 of wood. The preservation of the forests in "Western Siberia was imposed by the said rules 

 exclusively upon the rural population, allowing them in return the right of free use for their 

 own needs, but not for sale. The looking after the fulfilment of the rules was imposed upon 

 the volost administrations. This measure however did not bring the expected advantage. The 

 population was burdened with a natural service, timber was cut for the works and towns, but 

 the Crown received nothing. Nor was this all, in 1869 a law was promulgated, granting a 

 certain company the unlimited right of making use of Siberian timber for industrial purposes. 

 This company was permitted to cut timber free on the banks of the Obi and Yenisei and 

 their tributaries for the building of ships and the export of lumber. (Art. 412, Forest 

 Code, ed. 1876). Apparently this company made a generous use of the right granted it, as 

 timber trees have almost entirely disappeared from the shores of these chief rivers of Siberia. 

 It must however be remarked that the term of the priveleges, granted the company, has 

 expired. 



