December io, 1914] 



NATURE 



395 



owners of coniferous plantations to execute moder- 

 ate thinnings that will yield pit-props of useful 

 sizes. The present time also affords an excellent 

 opportunity for the clear- felling- of unprofitable 

 woods, that is, of all those which are not in a 

 thriving state, or which are insufficiently stocked, 

 or which are over-ripe, and no longer increasing 

 in volume at an appreciable rate. A considerable 

 area of coppice, which has been nearly worthless 

 for some years past, owing to the constantly de- 

 clining prices of all kinds of small timber, should 

 also be cleared, and be converted into conifer 

 plantations. All such clearances would provide 

 a good deal of timber useful in the present crisis, 

 which was formerly impossible to sell, owing to 

 the abundant supply at a cheap price of the same 

 kind of timber from the Baltic. After the trees 

 are felled, re-planting with fast-growing conifers 

 (as a general rule) should be proceeded with at 

 once. .A.11 these operations, felling, planting, etc., 

 would give rise to much employment of labour in 

 country districts during the coming winter, and 

 help to check the migration of the unemployed 

 into the large cities. 



Reasonable schemes of State afforestation have 

 hitherto been regarded unfavourably by those in 

 authority, but this view may change after the war 

 is over. Meanwhile, during the present time of 

 national danger, a great deal of useful work can 

 lie done by private owners of woodlands on the 

 lines suggested above. There is little doubt that 

 plantations, which can be made out of the pro- 

 ceeds of the sale of pit-timber besides increasing 

 the employment of labour, will prove a safe in- 

 vestment. 



\\'hat is possible in the way of afforestation in 

 Scotland is the chief subject discussed in Trans- 

 actions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society (vol. xxviii., part 2), which has recently 

 appeared. This part, besides some useful articles 

 and notes on Douglas fir, Sitka spruce, acetone, 

 etc., gives an account of a tour of inspection of 

 the woods and afforestable lands of the High- 

 lands, made during last July, to which foreign ^ 

 and colonial representative foresters were invited. 

 The splendid results obtained by modern methods 

 of forestry in Perthshire, Deeside, and Strathspey 

 were much admired. The enormous area of land 

 suitable for afforestation was the main feature 

 noticed in Inverness-shire and Argyllshire. 



As an example of what can be done in a short 

 period of years, the Benmore plantations on the 

 Clyde are most remarkable. Here 2000 acres were 

 planted thirty-four years ago, mostly on steep and 

 rocky hill-sides, from sea-level to 1200 ft. alti- 

 tude, the soil being a poor sandy peat covered 

 \\'ith heather. 



The species cultivated are mainly Douglas fir, 

 larch, Thuya gigantea, Scots pine, and spruce; 

 and the average volume per acre is about 3400 

 cubic feet, i.e., an annual yield of 100 cubic feet 

 of timber. One detached small plantation of 



* Dr. P. E. MuUer, the great authonty on Forest Soils, was the delegate 

 from Denmark. His views concerning the succession of soils and of species 

 of trees in ihe Danish forests form the subject of .in article in the Transac- 

 tions, p. 241, which is of interest to plant ecologists as well as foresters. 



NO. 2354, VOL. 94] 



Douglas fir and Thuya, situated at a low level, 

 under 130 ft. altitude, was blown down in 1912, 

 when it was thirty-five years old, and yielded the 

 enormous volume of 7430 cubic feet of timber per 

 acre, which was actually sold for 130/. The cost 

 of planting, loss of grazing (55. per acre), rates, 

 taxes, expenses of management, with compound 

 interest at 3 per cenl^ added, amounted to 6ii., 

 so that this plantation gave a net profit of 69Z. per 

 acre at the end of thirty-five years. The owner 

 of the estate, Mr. H. G. Younger, stated that the 

 whole glen, if afforested in the same way, which 

 could easily be done, would support an extra 1000 

 families by the employment that would necessarily 

 arise. Fig. i shows the mountain of A'Cruach at 

 Benmore with its bare rocky face before planting 

 was done, and Fig. 2 shows it covered with forest 

 trees. Both illustrations are from the Transac- 

 tions of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, 

 and are here reproduced by the courtesy of the 

 Society. A. H. 



WOOKEY HOLE.'- 



WOOKEY HOLE is situated in a narrow 

 ravine on the south side of the Mendips, 

 two miles from the cathedral city of Wells. Those 

 familiar with the labours of the pioneers who dis- 

 covered the presence of man in Pleistocene 

 deposits of British caves need no introduction to 

 this ravine in the Mendips, for the hyaena den, 

 where Prof. Boyd Dawkins, the doyen of British 

 "cave-hunters," commenced his labours fifty-five 

 years ago, is situated on its eastern side, within 

 stone-throw of the main series of caves which 

 open on the ivy-covered crags at the northern or 

 blind end of the ravine. 



At the time when Prof. Bo3d Dawkins (in part- 

 nership with the late Rev. T. Williamson) was 

 commencing his early exploration of the hyaena 

 den (1859), Pengelly and Falconer were bringing 

 their exploration of the cave at Brixham to a 

 close and were in a position to prove that the 

 earlier discoveries made by the Rev. J. MacEnery 

 at Kent's cavern and by Schmerling in the caves 

 along the Meuse were true — namely, that man 

 had been a contemporary of extinct animals such 

 as the mammoth and woolly rhinoceros. Prof. 

 Boyd Dawkins's explorations in the hyaena den at 

 W'ookey Hole clinched the matter ; man had been 

 living in England in the Pleistocene period. It is 

 also worthy of remark that at the very time Prof. 

 Boyd Dawkins was at w-ork at Wookey Hole, 

 Lartet was exposing, in the strata and hearths 

 of the cave at Aurignac, human bones mingled 

 with the charred remains of extinct animals and 

 certain types of human implements — now recog- 

 nised as characteristic of a period of Pleistocene 

 culture. 



In 1887, Mr, Henry Balch, the author of the 

 work now under review, one to which artist, en- 

 graver, printer, and bookbinder have given of 

 their best, began to make further explorations in 



1 "Wookey Hole: Its Caves and Cave Dwel'ers." By H. E. BalcH- 

 Pp. xiv + 268. (London : Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press, 

 1914.) Price 25J. net. 



