ORIGIN OF FOREST ENGINEERS IN SPAIN. 3 



some interest, to what were the views of Jovellanos on 

 this matter. 



In a Catalogue Raisonne prepared and printed for 

 private circulation, by lino Sr. Don Jose Jordanay Morera, 

 of upwards of eleven hundred books, MSS. and charts in 

 Spanish, original or translated, bearing upon forest science, 

 the author writes thus of a treatise included in a collection 

 of published works by Don Gaspar Melchor de Jovellanos, 

 entitled Representation de la Villa de Gijon para 

 que se prorogue el arbitrio de vino y sidra para 

 Fuentes, Calles y Plantios : c For this work we are 

 indebted to the illustrious author of the Informe Sobre La 

 Ley Agraria, which, notwithstanding its unpretentious 

 appearance, is one of the greatest importance in deter- 

 mining precisely what were the opinions of that enlightened 

 patriot in regard to the nature, the advantage to the 

 country, the utilisation, and the possession or tenure 

 by the State of the public forests, in regard to which 

 many, misled it may be by the brevity or conciseness 

 of his statements, have supposed that he spake doubtingly, 

 rather than with certainty, in regard to the question of 

 the absolute and entire alienation or sale of the forest 

 possessions of the country. From the text of the 

 Representacion it is apparent at least that his opinion did 

 not go so far as this, but rather that on the contrary he 

 assigns to public forests advantages, and a utilisation of a 

 national character impossible to be obtained from forests 

 held only in the interest of a private proprietor.' And he 

 remarks in regard to the Representacion /'One of the most 

 noteworthy paragraphs in it is the following : Nor is 

 less certain the necessity of creating on the approach to 

 this town a plantation of pines on the extensive sand 

 plain stretching away to the east and the south, the sand 

 composing which is kept in continuous movement by the 

 wind, enters the streets and accumulates in them, 

 obstructing and embarrassing the public way to the great 

 trouble of passengers, and the great discomfort 

 annoyance of the inhabitants, 



