^ THE FORESTS OF FRANCE. 



the opinion of our Council, and our Royal will, We, with 

 our certain knowledge, and full power and authority, have 

 said, declared, and ordained, and We do say, declare, and 

 ordain that our pleasure is what follows : 



* Chapter I. Of the Jurisdiction of Waters and Forests. 



'Article 1. The Judges appointed to deal with Waters 

 and Forests shall take cognisance of all matters civil and 

 criminal, pertaining to the Waters and Forests, to what- 

 ever persons and whatever subjects they may relate. 



* 2. We declare as within matters assigned to them, all 

 questions which may be raised in regard to our forests, 

 woods, and shrubberies, fellings, sales, collecting and 

 delivery of produce, surveys, clearings, and replenishings 

 of woods, and of all tenures in grurie^ in grairie, in segrairie^ 

 in tiers et danger, appannage, sale, contract, usufruct, and 

 co-proprietorship, usages, commons, lands, marshes, pas- 

 turage, pannage, mast, right of passage and of movement, 

 and change of bounds and boundaries in our woods. 



' 3. It shall also be competent to them to decide all 

 actions relative to undertakings and claims on navigable 

 or flotage rivers, both in regard to navigation and flotage, 

 and in regard to rights of fishing, passage, pontage, and other 

 matters, be it in regard to produce or cash, leading off of 

 water, rupture of banks, hiring of barges, ferries, and boats, 

 erections on the river, the construction or demolition of 

 sluices, fisheries of every kind, mills on rivers, the inspec- 

 tion of fish, as well in shops as in boats and reservoirs, and 

 of nets, implements, and articles made use of in fishing, 

 and generally of everything which might impede naviga- 

 tion, or transport and flotage of wood from our forests, 

 all this, however, without prejudice to the jurisdiction of 

 Provosts appointed by merchants, in towns in which they 

 have a right to take cognisance in whole or in part of these 

 matters, and of that of ofiicials in charge of causeways and 

 embankments, and of that of others who may have in 

 title and possession a right to take cognisance of them. 



