THE FORESTS AND SPORT OF SIBERIA. 125 



Indeed, a rough shake from a man's hand is sufficient to make it 

 fall into a heap of shapeless debris. Finally, even this disappears, 

 and there is left a treeless expanse, broken only here and there by 

 the last traces of a trunk. 



But even here a new life begins to rise from amid the ruins. 

 Some years after the conflagration, the charred ground, manured by 

 ashes and decayed debris, begins once more to be adorned. Lichens 

 and mosses, ferns and heaths, and above all various berry -bearing 

 bushes cover the ground and the debris of the trees. These flourish 

 more luxuriantly here than anywhere else, and they begin to attract 

 animals as various as those which the flames had banished. Seeds of 

 birch borne by the wind germinate and become seedlings, which 

 gradually form, at first exclusively, a thicket as dense as if it had 

 sprung from man's sowing. After some years a young undergrowth 

 has covered the field of the dead; after a longer interval other forest 

 trees gradually arise in the room of their predecessors. Every forest- 

 fire spares some parts of the region which it embraces; even isolated 

 trees may survive in the midst of the burned area, and effect the re- 

 sowing of the desolated tract. Sheets of water and deep gorges may 

 set limits to the fire, and it may even happen that the flames, leap- 

 ing over a gulley, continue their devastation on the opposite bank 

 without injuring the trees in the depths beneath. Moreover, indi- 

 vidual larch-trees which have been attacked by the fire may escape 

 destruction. The bases of the trunks are charred and all the needles 

 are shrivelled up, but often the crown bursts forth afresh, and for 

 a time the tree continues, though somewhat miserably, to live. 



In comparison with the ravages of the flames, the devastations for 

 which man is directly responsible seem trivial, but in themselves 

 they are of no slight importance. Of forest -culture the Siberian 

 has no conception. The forest belongs to God, and what is His is 

 also the peasant's ; thus, in view of the practically infinite wealth, 

 he never thinks of sparing, but does what he pleases, what the 

 needs of the moment seem to him to demand. Every Siberian fells 

 and roots out, where and as he pleases, and everyone destroys infin- 

 itely more than he really requires. For a few cones he will fell a 

 pine, even if it be in the prime of growth; to obtain building wood 



