54 THE FOREST LANDS OF FINLAND. 



are sacrificed every year ; and last of all, the reckless and 

 excessive consumption of wood as fuel in houses, baths, 

 furnaces, &c. According to an approximate estimate made 

 by a Commissioner appointed to inspect the forests belong- 

 ing to the Crown, there are consumed annually in Finland 

 seven hundred and fifty-four millions of cubic feet of wood, 

 over and above the consumption in towns and the quantity 

 exported. This great destruction, however, has been some- 

 what reduced since the improvement on roads and com- 

 munications, and a more lively speculation has imparted 

 to wood a money value which it had not previously. At 

 the same time this latter circumstance has not unfre- 

 quently had an injurious influence, for proprietors, tempted 

 by the high prices, have sold their forests to enterprising 

 proprietors of saw-mills, who have hasted to clear them off, 

 stock and stem. This new devastation has engaged the 

 attention both of the public and of the Government, which 

 it will have to endeavour to regulate, if it be not speedily 

 restrained by the ever increasing price of wood, and by 

 changes on the conditions of the market.' 



Such is the field of study upon which we are about to 

 enter. To a tourist in Finland the practice of devastation 

 may appear to be overdrawn, and the anxiety uncalled 

 for ; but it is those who know what the consumption is, 

 and what proportion the annual cubic increase of forest 

 product by growth bears to this, who alone can speak with 

 authority on the subject. 



