350 N'orway and the Norewgians 



be available for building purposes and what refuse 

 there would be which must be sold as firewood. Only 

 since 1884 have serious attempts been made to put 

 restrictions upon the felling of trees. Even now the 

 regulations are not, properly speaking, in the hands of 

 the State. 



Common riohts in the forest have been revised and 

 re-arranged, and now these rights have become once 

 more really the property of the Communes. They are 

 regulated by a commission composed of representa- 

 tives both of the proprietors of forest lands themselves 

 and those who have only forest rights. These last 

 take precedence of the rights of the proprietors of the 

 soil. The commission of tlie Commune {Bygdcalmen- 

 ning) has full powers to regulate the felling of trees, 

 and to take measures, by planting, etc., to preserve the 

 forests. At the present moment about eight-ninths of 

 the forest land of Norway is under the regulation of the 

 representatives of the Bygdealmenninger. The remain- 

 ing one-ninth consists chiefly of forests belonging to the 

 State or to the fund of public instruction (what was for- 

 merly Church land). The State sets aside the small sum 

 of £3600 per annum for the purchase of forests. 



The life of the forester while he is at his work of 

 tree-felling is an extremely hard one, and is not with- 

 out its spice of adventure. Tor the time at which 

 the trees have to be cut down is after all their foliage 

 has withered and the sap which it contained has re- 

 turned to the trunk of the tree : then is the wood at 

 its hardest and in best condition. Thus all the tree- 

 fellinfj o'oes on in late autumn and winter. The wood- 

 cutter goes by himself far into the depths of the forest, 



