598 



NATURE 



{April 19, 1888 



of the German African Society to Tripoli, and thence by Egypt 

 and Abyssinia to Galla Land. Herr Stecker's observations 

 referred largely to natural history, of which he was a student. 



Lieut. Wissmann, the African traveller, who was obliged to 

 spend the winter at Madeira on account of ill-health, there had 

 an opportunity of writing the report of his second journey to 

 Africa. The book has just been published by Brockhaus. At 

 present Lieut. Wissmann is engaged on an account of his first 

 expedition to the south of the Congo Basin, in company with 

 Dj 



Drs. Friederich Kurtz and Wii.helm Bodenbender, 

 both Professors at the Cordoba University (Argentine Republic), 

 have started on a scientific expedition to the East Andes. 



FORESTRY IN THE CAPE COLONY. 



'T'HE Report of Consul Siler, the United States representative 

 -•- at Cape Colony, which has been just issued, contains a full 

 account of the present state of forestry in that country. He says 

 that of the 214,000 square miles which are comprised in Cape 

 Colony, there are something over 350 square miles covered with 

 large forest trees. These forests lie almost all together near the 

 sea, running nearly parallel to the coast, in the temperate regions 

 of the southern mountain chains. Till recent years the system of 

 felling pursued was a most wasteful and unsystematic one. Far 

 from confining the operations of the woodcutters to certain 

 limited sections or areas, the authorities permitted them to roam 

 about at pleasure, and to pick and choose from among the 

 forests what trees they should cut dow-n. This license had its 

 natural effect : only the choicest trees were cut, and even of 

 these only selected portions were taken away, the rejected parts 

 being left to cumber the ground. It has been estimated by those 

 skilled in woodcraft that by this pernicious system 30 cubic feet 

 of wood were wasted to each one utilized ; and thus it is that 

 many forests have totally disappeared, and even those that were 

 not so easily accessible have been sadly impoverished. Till 1880 

 no steps were taken to preserve this natural wealth that was 

 being so shamefully abused. In that year, however, the question 

 was strongly urged on the attention of the Colonial Parliament. 

 One of the chief defects of the system was pointed out — namely, 

 the total absence of skilled caretakers, those then in charge 

 having received no technical education whatever ; and to meet 

 this in some measure Parliament at once voted a sum of money 

 to pay a trained superintendent. The choice fell on Count de 

 Vasselot, who had had wide experience in French forestry at 

 Nancy, and he at once proceeded to lay the foundations of the 

 present forest department at the Cape. One of his fir^t steps 

 was to divide the forests into districts, which he again sub- 

 divided into sections, and to direct that felling should proceed 

 in sections, the re-growth of the first section being given time to 

 develop into mature trees before the axe was again used in that 

 section. By this system the entire shutting up of any forest for 

 a time is done away with. At present the period for the 

 " revolution " of fellings is fixed at forty years. The tariffs now 

 vary for standing timber from 2 cents to 6 cents per cubic foot 

 of sound wood ; with the exception of stinkwood {Oreodaphne 

 bullata), which, being very hard and very valuable, was almost 

 threatened with extermination, for which the price is 24 cents 

 per cubic foot. Poles from 6 inches to 10 inches in diameter are 

 sold at the rate of 2 cents per running foot ; spars from 4 inches 

 to 6 inches in diameter at 12 cents per 100 running feet. 



The Consul illustrates the general system of managing and 

 preserving the forests now followed in the colony by "a minute 

 description of that used in Knysua, the most extensive and most 

 valuable of all the Cape forests. The total area of the Knysua 

 may be roughly stated to be 100,000 acres, and of this magnifi- 

 cent forest almost three-fourths have been impoverished and in 

 fact exhausted by the indiscriminate and reckless system of 

 felling pursued in the past. At present the staff to conserve and 

 replant this forest consists of one conservator, three superior 

 grade officers, and six rangers or guards. Each higher grade 

 officer has the superintendence of a tract of woodland varying in 

 extent from 10,000 to 30,000 acres, in which he surveys the large 

 timber, fixes the limits of the blocks or series, and plans out the 

 boundaries of the various sections. No works are sanctioned 

 without the consent of the Superintendent of Woods and Forests, 

 and, if he has given his approval, the sections are surveyed and 

 the trees fit for felling are marked with an official stamp. The 



duties of the rangers are to ride about their districts and en- 

 deavour to discover any breaches of the forest regulations, and in 

 cases of successful prosecution they are rewarded according to 

 the zeal and ability displayed by them. Besides the officers 

 above-named, there are thirteen foresters distributed over the 

 different woods, whose duty it is to plant, and, if necessary, 

 transplant trees, and to take care of young trees. These men are 

 paid at the rate of S20 a month, are provided with free quarters 

 and ten acres of garden land, and are paid a bonus of S2. 50 per 

 1000 for planting nursery plants, S2.50 per 1000 for i-foot trees 

 in the forest, or for nursery work and transplanting S5 per 1000 

 trees. This bonus cannot in the case of any individual forester 

 exceed $300 in the year, without special permission. Each forester 

 is expected to raise at least 40,000 young trees annually. So far 

 as can at present be judged, seeing that the system has had but a 

 few years' trial, it has undoubtedly proved a success. To show 

 the amount of work that some of the^e foresters get through, it 

 may be mentioned that in King William's Town forests in the 

 year 1885 six foresters planted in the course of the year 

 138,080 plants in the nursery, and transplanted from the nursery 

 into the forests 63,885 young trees. With the object of encour- 

 aging these valuable efforts to preserve the forests and to increase 

 the area under timber, the Colonial Government has laid out 

 several large tracts of land into plantations and nurseries, and 

 although these are but of very recent formation they have already 

 proved their utility in the reafforesting of the country. At the 

 Government nurseries there are at the present moment over one 

 million plants flourishing. In the working of these nurseries and 

 plantations, convict labour has been utilized as largely as possible, 

 and by this means the cost of the convict prisons has largely 

 diminished. One other work in this connection of the Colonial 

 Government is worthy of remark. At the plantation of Tokai, 

 on the Table Mountain range, 150 species of extra-tropical trees 

 have been introduced, and from them plants have been raised, with 

 which it is proposed to reafforest the whole Table Mountain 

 slopes, and already, in the short space of two seasons, 1000 acres 

 have been replanted. From all the Government nurseries plants 

 can be purchased at a nominal rate, and this, together with a 

 recent Act whereby public bodies receive Government aid to the 

 extent of one-half their expenditure on replanting, has given a 

 strong stimulus to, and has aroused general interest in, the science 

 of arboriculture among the colonists. Following the example of 

 many American States, their first "arbor day," in i886, was 

 proclaimed a public holiday ; and so great was its success that it 

 is very likely to become a permanent institution. The Consul 

 concludes his Report by saying that it is confidently hoped that 

 with such machinery at work and with a growing interest in the 

 advantages of tree-cultivation, in the future. Cape Colony will 

 be independent of foreign markets for her timber supply ; and 

 that it is probable that the presence of forests, by increasing the 

 rainfall, will bring tracts which are at present barren into 

 cultivation. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 London. 



Royal Society, March 22. — " On the Skull, Brain, and 

 Auditory Organ of a new Species of Pterosaurian (Scapho- 

 gnathtis Piu-doni) from the Upper Lias, near Whitby, York- 

 shire." By E. T. Newton, F.G.S., F.Z.S., Geological Survey. 

 Communicated by Dr. Archibald Geikie, F. R. S. 



The fossil Pterodactyl skull, which is the subject of this 

 communication, was obtained from the Upper Lias of Lofthouse, 

 near Whitby, by the Rev. D. W. Purdon, of Wolverhampton. 

 It is the first Pterodactyl found in the Yorkshire Lias, and is a 

 new form, allied to the Continental Jurassic species Scaphognathus 

 {Pterodactylus) crassirostris of Goldfuss. The structure of the 

 skull, including the back, base, and palatal regions, is better 

 shown than in any previously discovered specimen ; and in ad- 

 dition to this the brain and parts of the auditory organs have 

 been exposed. 



In its present condition the skull is about five and a half inches 

 long ; but apparently about two inches of the front are wanting. 

 The elongated snout gives the skull a very bird-like appearance ; 

 but its most striking features are the five apertures, surrounded 

 by bone, seen on each side. The orbit is the largest of these 

 apertures ; in front of this, and next in size, is the ant-orbital 

 fossa ; still further forward is the somewhat smaller external 



