AREA, DISTRIBUTION, MANAGEMENT, &c. 41 



tion of regular forest administration up to the present 

 time. Under the Minister of Finance there has been a 

 distinct Department for the management of the Crown 

 property, included in which are the Crown forests. Some 

 few changes have taken place in this department, but 

 they have consisted mainly in reducing the number of 

 officials employed in it. At present the forest section of 

 the Administration of Finance consists of thirteen officials 

 in all, under a chief, but even he has very little to do with 

 the actual management of the forests, and he in turn is 

 under the immediate direction of the department of 

 Imperial domains, with the director in which lies the 

 initiation of the management of the forests; and the 

 forest section in the Ministry of Finance presents more 

 the appearance of a chancery than of a department. 



' The forests are arranged in eight districts, over each of 

 which is a commissioner ; but these districts are not all of 

 equal size and importance. Each commissioner has an 

 adjunct, who may be likened to the taxator, or valuer, in 

 the Russian forest service. They have the superinten- 

 dence of all buildings, &c., as assistants to the commis- 

 sioners, and they very rarely have anything entrusted to 

 them entirely. 



' The pay of the officials is very moderate. The chief 

 of the section receives 1350 roubles a year. The Stolon- 

 chalnicks, or heads of tables, clerks presiding over the 

 writers or copyists, are in three sections. Two receive 900, 

 two 824, and four 750 roubles. The adjuncts or assistants 

 do not all receive the same amount of pay, but salaries 

 ranging to from 300 to 674 roubles a year. The commis- 

 sioner has, in addition to his salary, an allowance of 400 

 roubles a year for travelling expenses, and the assistants 

 have one of 300 roubles. 



'Notwithstanding the small number of the officials in 

 the Forest Administration, and the small salaries paid to 

 them, and the salary of the director not being included in 

 the account, the expenses have amounted to the following 

 sums : 



