

CHIEF FIRE WARDEN. 117 



Alterations in the above figures will probably become necessary when a fresh 

 survey is made. 



The outer boundaries are in order, but the internal boundaries require rectifi- 

 cation. 



2. Locality. 



The forest here in question occupies on the whole the slopes lying between a 

 hill range on the south and the river Schwarzenbach on the north. The highest 

 point of the hill range, the Hoher Ochsenkopf, has an elevation of 3,465 feet above 

 the sea, while the lowest part, near the Schwarzenbach, is only 2,000 feet above 

 the sea, the mean elevation being placed at 2,600 feet. 



The slopes, on which the forest is found, are mostly steep, level spots being 

 only found on the summits of the hills, and toward the lower end, where granite 

 and Bunter Sandstein meet. 



The area is drained by the Schwarzenbach (a feeder of the Raumunzach) with 

 its two feeders, the Gartenbach and Dobelbach. The first mentioned runs from 

 west to east, and the two latter, more or less, from south-west toward north-east. 

 It follows that the forest in the valley of the Schwarzenbach has generally a north 

 aspect, and in the valleys of the Gartenbach and Dobelbach a northwest aspect on 

 one side, and a southeast aspect on the other side of the streams. All the forest 

 areas (except those situated at the highest elevations and which are of no impor- 

 tance) are protected by intervening ranges against the prevailing winds. 



Up to a mean elevation of 2, 500 feet, granite is the principal rock, which is 

 sometimes (though rarely) pierced by porphyry. Above the afore-mentioned ele- 

 vation the granite underlies upper Bunter Sandstein (Vogesen Sandstein), and the 

 latter accordingly prevails in the larger part of the forest area. 



The granite is generally rich in orthoclase and oligoclase, and therefore decom- 

 poses readily, and furnishes mostly a deep soil rich in mineral elements. The de- 

 composition is facilitated, and the quality of the soil improved, by the remarkably 

 numerous springs which appear between the granite and the Bunter Sandstein. 

 Hard slow decomposing quartzite is of rare occurrence. 



The Bunter Sandstein is characterized by rapidly and greatly changing mineral 

 composition, consisting sometimes of readily decomposing rock yielding a deep clay 

 soil, in other cases of hard quartz-gravel, frequently found on the surface in the 

 numerous bolder-drifts. The Bunter Sandstein has numerous rents and fissures 

 in all directions, so that it is rapidly drained, and the disintegration and decom- 

 position are only rarely assisted by springs, which at the best are scanty and inter- 

 mittent. It follows that the Bunter Sandstein soils, even when formed by the 

 easily decomposed and minerally rich clay sandstone, never equal the best quality 

 of the granite soil; moreover, they change frequently and very suddenly, and with- 

 out any visible cause, into almost unproductive areas. 



On the flat hill tops, layers of fine white sand (produced by the disintegration of 

 the gravelly sandstone) frequently produces an impermeable stratum, preventing 

 the water from percolating, thus causing bogs (or ' ' Grinde ") which often extend 

 over considerable areas and are almost unproductive. 



The quality of the soil, therefore, ranges between good and unproductive, in 

 the following proportion: 



Good and fairly good to medium = 78 per cent. 

 Medium to indifferent = 12 



Indifferent to unproductive = 10 " 



