214 France. 



appointed by the King to watch over the conduct of 

 the maitres and gruyers, officers in charge of the forest 

 districts (maitrises). All of these officials had their 

 deputies and lieutenants under various designations 

 (procureur du roi, greffier, gardemarteau, sergen du 

 garde, etc. 



A stamping hammer (kept by the gardemarteau) 

 was employed for marking trees which defined the 

 boundaries, or which were to be reserved in the fellings. 

 In addition to these regular officers there were em- 

 ployed a great number of capitaines des chasses whose 

 functions, as the title indicates, related mainly to the 

 chase. The function of the forestmasters did not 

 stop with the supervision of the use of the forest and 

 sale of wood, but included also the jurisdiction of all 

 misdemeanors and crimes committed in the royal, 

 and later, in all forests. They became thus gradually 

 a privileged class of immense power. Graft and sale 

 of offices became the order of the day. Sometimes 

 the offices were made hereditary, and again were 

 limited to three or four years' tenure, in the endeavour 

 to break up the shameful practices. For nearly three 

 centuries all efforts at reform were failures. 



The method of prescribing the rules and regula- 

 tions during the 12th to 17th century was by ordi- 

 nances like those issued by the German princes; the 

 first ordinance on record being that issued by Louis VI 

 in 1215. These ordinances usually appeared under 

 the name Lefait des eaux etforets (the matters of waters 

 and woods), curiously enough thus suggesting the 

 relation of the two. The latter term was used exactly 

 like that of the German Forst, designating the reserved 



