WAR DEMANDS THREATEN HISTORIC FOREST OF 



FONTAINEBLEU 



WILL the forest of Fontainebleu have to be sacri- 

 ficed to military purposes, questions a dispatch 

 of the Associated Press. This matter is agitating 

 French historical, artistic and literary circles. There is 

 little of these questionings in the practical military mind 

 and it is believed probable that before long the ancient 

 forest will resemble a lumber camp on the Ottawa or 

 the St. Maurice River. 



The drain of lumber during the present war has been 

 very great. With the difficulty in transportation grow- 

 ing more and more acute the supply of timber has had 



It was felled at the request of the king. Its heart was 

 rotten, but it was still bearing foliage and yearly adding 

 new wood. Care had been exercised through the cen- 

 turies to preserve it, a circular fence screening it from the 

 deer. It was sixty-five feet high, with a wide, branching 

 top. With all their experience with trees the Canadians 

 hardly knew at first how to get it down. Their ordinary 

 crosscut saws are only five feet in length, but for this 

 gigantic oak they needed a saw some fifteen feet in 

 length. Such a saw they ordered, and it was finally 

 delivered, but not until the enterprising Canadian spirit 



International Film Service 



RUINED FORESTS IN NO MAN'S LAND 



Must the beautiful forest of Fontainebleu be sacrificed to meet the exigencies of war? This is a question now agitating many minds, but 

 far better that it should be cut clean and the timber used for necessary construction work than that it should share the fate of this once beautiful 

 bit of woodland in sunny France now a desolate, shell-torn spot where the naked trees lift gaunt arms to the sky, calling for retribution. 



to be obtained from local tracts instead of from the 

 virgin forests of northern Canada. 



A cable from London to the New York Globe tells us 

 that one of the most picturesque and memorable pieces 

 of work by the Canadian Forester Corps in England was 

 the felling of the "William the Conquerer Oak," which 

 stood beneath the king's window at Windsor. 



For several reasons this was perhaps the most remark- 

 able tree in the British Isles. It was more than 1,000 

 years old. Authentic records show that it was standing 

 where the Canadians found it as long ago as 900 A. D. 

 The tree was thirty-eight and one-half feet in diameter 

 at the base. 



had solved the problem. Into the heart of the trunk 

 a hole was cut and a sawyer placed inside. The sawyer 

 inside working with the fellow outside, cut gradually 

 around the trunk until the ancient monarch fell. 



The heart of the tree was cleaned out and the hole 

 filled with cement to avert further decay. The wood 

 is susceptible of the most beautiful polish and doubtless 

 the main portion of the trunk will keep permanently. 

 Some small souvenirs have been given away. Need- 

 less to say, they would command large prices if sold 

 at auction. In a typically Canadian log cabin built 

 for the king at Windsor, the mantelpiece is made of 

 wood from the old oak. This cabin structure is of 



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