234 



NATURE 



[January 4, 1894 



or shrubby waste lands, or within a distance of 200 metres from 

 their boundaries. The period during which these fires were 

 declared illegal by the former Act of 1870, was fixed annually 

 by the prefects, but experience has shown that it can now be 

 fixed once for all by the law. As exceptions to this law, Clause 

 2 also authorises the prefects to allow charcoal-makers and other 

 woodmen to liiiht fires at their own risk, in case of damage 

 arising, and subject to certain rules made by the prefects. 



Among the fires prohibited during the close season is the so- 

 oalled petit feu,^ by which strips of undergrowth were care- 

 fully burned every six or seven years in the cork forests, to save 

 the valuable cork oak trees from more dangerous uncontrolled 

 fires. This system costs only 3.?. dd. an acre, as compared with 

 £df an acre for uprooting the dangerous undergrowth. It is 

 evidently more hariful to the forest than the other method, as 

 the fire occasionally gets out of control, and, in any case, the 

 burning diminishes the fertility of the soil. 



The ninth clause directs that all landed proprietors, whose 

 land has not been entirely cleared of all woody growth, may be 

 compelled by an adjoining proprietor to keep a strip of land 

 between the two estates entirely free from shrubs or conifers. 

 The breadth of this strip will vary, according to circumstances, 

 between 20 and 50 metres. 



It is further enacted in Clause il that similar bare strips 20 

 metres broad shall be kept up along all lines of railway through 

 a wooded area, and that these strips in adj .ining property shall 

 be kept clear at the expense of the railway companies. As it 

 may not always be necessary to keep up these fire lines along 

 the railways, a committee, consisting of a departmental 

 councillor {comeiller ghierat), a forest officer, and a railway 

 engineer, shall decide when they may be omitted. All pro- 

 prietors, whose woods are cut down in clearing these strips, 

 are to obtain indemnities. This is a new provision, and called 

 for owing to the extension of railways. The Act looks to the 

 future in a clause exempting railway companies from this 

 liability if they should use electric motors, or other inventions 

 which cannot cause a forest fire. 



In case any fire should break out, and it may appear advis- 

 able to light a counter fire, the two fires meeting and extinguish- 

 ing one another for want of inflammable material, the local 

 mayor, or his deputy, or failing these the most senior forest 

 officer present, is to take charge of all measures to extinguish 

 the fire, and no indemnity arises for woods burned under such 

 circumstances. As in India, it is found in the south-east of 

 France that fire is frequently caused by sportsmen, or poachers 

 during the dry season, and the prefect is therefore authorised to 

 delay the commencement of the shooting season until the 

 commencement of the rains, which generally happens before 

 the end of September. 



As it is found that the construction of a network of roads 

 greatly facilitates fire protection, by giving more value to forest 

 produce, and rendering it possible to transport the material 

 cleared from fire lines, and as roads serve as lines from which 

 counter fires may be started, the State offers a subvention of 3000 

 francs per kilometre {;^200 per mile) for roads constructed in 

 the district, up to a total outlay of 600,000 francs (;i^24,coo). 



It appears that since 1870, 479,000 francs (^19,160) have 

 been spent by the State on new roads in the State forests of the 

 Esterel. The penalties attached to the breach of the first clause 

 of this law are one to five days' imprisonment, or fine of 20 to 

 500 francs, and both fine and imprisonment can be inflicted, so 

 that magistrates can make the penalty proportional to the 

 gravity of the offence, and all police, forest guards, whether 

 belonging to the State or to private properties, are directed to 

 carry out the law by reporting offences, their written statements 

 being received as evidence in cases which may arise. If the 

 railway companies do not clear the fire lines along the railways, 

 these lines will be cleared at their expense by the French 

 Forest Department. 



Although much land which might otherwise be planted is 

 wasted in England owing to heather fires, and not only is a 

 large area of pine forest destroyed annually by fire, but also the 

 increase of destructive pine beetles is thus greatly favoured, there 

 is little hope of our Legislature interfering ; but the matttris more 

 serious in North America, and along the Northern Pacific 

 Railway about 1000 miles of treeless country exists, where the 

 forests have been destroyed by fires, whilst the immensely valu- 



"^ Vide "A Forest Tour in Provence and the Cevennes," by Colonel 

 Bailey, R.E., in Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh, vol. 

 xvi. part 3, 18S6. 



able pitch-pine forests of the Southern States are rapidly dis- 

 appearing from the same cause. 



Matters have been dealt with in British India much more 

 prudently, and regulations against forest fires have been enacted 

 for the last twenty years at least in all the provinces under our 

 control, and also to a certain extent within the native States. 

 As a result of these regulations, and the careful management of 

 the Indian Forest Department, 23,144 square miles of State 

 forest in India were protected from fire in 1891 at a cost of 

 Q rupees per square mile, and this in addition to large areas of 

 evergreen forest where no danger from forest fires exists. 



W. R. Fisher. 



PRIZE SUBJECTS OF THE PARIS ACADEMY 

 OF SCIENCES. 



"T^HE following are the subjects for which prizes will be 

 awarded by the Paris Academy in the years 1894, 1895, 

 1896, and 1898 : — 



1894. Grand Friz for Mathematical Sciences — The develop- 

 men, of an imiiortant point in connection with the deformation 

 of surfaces. Friz Bordin — The study of problems in analytical 

 mechanics admitting of algebraic integrals with regard to velo- 

 c ties, and especially quadratic integrals. Friz Francoeur — 

 Discoveries or useful works on the progress of pure and applied 

 mathematical sciences. Friz Foncelet — To the author of the 

 most useful work on the progress of pure and applied mathe- 

 matical sciences, Extraorainary Prize of six thousand 

 francs — For any work tending to increase the efficacy of 

 French naval forces. Friz Montyon — Mechanics. Friz 

 Pinmey — To the author of an improvement of steam engines 

 or any other invention which promotes the advance of steam 

 navigation. Friz Dalmont — To the engineer of bridges and 

 highways who presents the best work to the Academy. Fi-iz 

 Lalande — Astronomy. Friz Danioiseaii — Improvement of the 

 method of calculating the perturbations of minor planets so as 

 to give their positions within a few minutes of arc for an interval 

 ol fifty years ; also the construction of tables which allow the 

 principal parts of the perturbations to be rapidly determined. 

 Friz Valz — Astronomy. Ptiz jfanssen — Astronomical physics. 

 Friz Mo'ityon — Statistics. Priz Jecker^Oizz.r\\c:. chemistry. 

 Friz Vaillant — Study of the physical and chemical causes de- 

 terminmg the existence of rotatory power in transparent bodies, 

 especially from the experimental point of view. Friz Desma- 

 zieres — -To the author of the most u'^eful work on all or part of the 

 cryptogams. Priz Montagne — To the authors of important 

 works having for their subject the anatomy, physiology, develop- 

 ment, or description of the lower cryptogams. Priz Thore — 

 Awarded alternately to works on the cellular cryptogams 

 of Europe, and to researches on the habits or anatomy 

 of a species of European insect. Friz Savigtiy — To 

 young zoological explorers. Priz da Gama Machado — 

 On the coloured parts of the integumentary system of 

 animals, and on the fertilising matter of living things. Friz 

 Mtintyoji — Medicine and surgery. Priz Brcant — For a means 

 of ciiring Asiatic cholera. Friz Godard — The anatomy, 

 physiology, and pathology of genito-urinary organs. Priz 

 Parkin — Researches on the curative effects of carbon in its 

 various forms, and more especially in the gaseous form of carbon 

 dioxide, in cholera, different kinds of fever, and other ailments. 

 Priz Earlier — For a useful discovery in surgery, medicine, 

 pharmacy, or botany in connection with the art of healing. 

 Friz Lallemand — For the recompensation or encourage ment of 

 works relating to the nervous system, accei'ting the widest 

 meaning of these words. Priz Beliion — To the writers of 

 works or discoverers of facts of special importance to the health 

 of human beings or the improvement of mankind. Priz Mlge 

 — For the completion of Dr. Mege's essay on the causes that 

 have retarded or favoured the progress of medicine. Priz 

 Montyon — Experimental physiology. Pi'iz Potiiat — On the 

 influence exercised by the pancreas and suprarenal capsules 

 on the nervous system, and reciprocally, on the influence 

 that the nervous system exercises on these glands, studied 

 especially from a physiological point of view. Frt~ 

 Gay — The study of subterranean waters ; their origin, 

 diiection, the strata they traverse, their composition, 

 and the animal and vegetable life that live in them. 

 Priz Montyon — Unhealthy occupations. Priz Cuvier — For 

 the most remarkable work on the animal kingdom, or on 



NO. 1262, VOL. 49] 



