98 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



of what is done in the felling of trees ; and that in Siberia 

 there is not even a system of taxation or of charge for trees 

 that are felled : all which is in accordance with what I have 

 heard from others. One of my correspondents who had 

 occasion to travel extensively every year in the interior 

 told me it had frequently happened, when he asked in 

 regard to forests through which he was passing, to whom 

 did they belong, he was told they were free, by which he 

 understood that any one might fell trees without let or 

 hindrance. They may have been communal forests ; but it 

 happened too often and too far from villages to give coun- 

 tenance to the supposition that such was the case. 



I have spoken of exploitation by Jardinage as being des- 

 tructive of forests, and have in illustration cited what I 

 have seen of its effects at the Cape of Good Hope. Similar 

 effects have been witnessed both in Germany and in France. 

 It was this which gave occasion for Colbert's oft-cited 

 saying, France perira faute de bois ! and for the celebrated 

 Ordinance of ] 669, known to, or known of by, most students 

 of Forst-Wissenschaft, or Forest Science, on the Continent 

 of Europe. And even in Russia, where forests cover regions 

 which in extent appear interminable, it is seen to be only 

 a question of time when forests will disappear, unless the 

 measures now being adopted by the Forest Administration 

 and patriotic landholders in various parts, or others, to 

 which these may give rise, shall avert the evil. An approxi- 

 mate estimate has been formed of the cubic measurement 

 of the annual growth or increase of wood in Russia, and an 

 approximate estimate has been formed of the cubic mea- 

 surement of the wood annually consumed as firewood, 

 building material, raw material of various manufactures, 

 articles of export trade, &c. ; and this has been found to be 

 so far in excess of the former, that, but for the remedial 

 measures referred to the consumption continuing un- 

 dirninished, while the production was every year becoming 

 less in some 200 years Russia must be divested of her 

 forests. 



