18 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. 



and in the localities where the soil is argilaceous, and 

 consequently humid, the trees reach a great height. Trees 

 are seen, above all, upon the heights which line the coast 

 from Balaklava as far as Aloupka ; from the side of 

 Alouchta they form vast forests between Babougine-Yaila 

 and Tehatir-Dagh. The pine of Taurida, which often 

 attains a height of 50 feet, climbs the most elevated 

 summits of Baghtcheh-Terai and of Tchoufout-Kaleh, 

 whose schistous declivities it adorns. The beech, which 

 grows in the environs of Laspi as much as a metre in 

 diameter, composes the bulk of certain woods. 



' In Ukraine, the black earth called by the Russians 

 stepnoi-ezernozem, which constitutes the soil of a part of 

 South Russia, gives rise to forests of a special nature, and 

 of which the principal kinds are oaks, limes, and elms. 

 These trees grow with uncommon vigour, and are asso- 

 ciated with an immense number of large pear-trees of a 

 magnificent aspect. Nevertheless this beautiful forest 

 mantle is often etiolated under the pernicious action of 

 drought, which causes the destruction of thousands of 

 trees, and particularly hazels, ashes, and elms ; only the 

 species with deep roots escape its devastating influence. 



1 The governments the richest in forests are those of 

 Archangel, Vologda, Viatki, Olonetz, Perm, Kostroma, 

 Novogorod, Minsk, and Vilna. They are each of them com- 

 posed of different kinds. In the government of Archangel 

 pines predominate, and lines of them ascend as far as 67 

 degrees of latitude. In that of Kostroma reign vast 

 forests of limes. In the government of Toula this same 

 kind constitutes also woods of a peculiar physiognomy, on 

 account of the special forms which this tree invests itself 

 with in this country. Its top, instead of the thick rami- 

 fication which belongs to it in our climates, presents only 

 a very slight development with insignificant branches. 

 The oak also of these forests throws out only a small 

 number of branches, and its leaves, like those of all the 

 kinds in this government, have not that thickness which 

 one admires in the forests of the East ; a phenomenon 

 which is partly owing to the constant dryness of the air. 



