FOREST DEVASTATION. 215 



This also causes a great want of fuel, particularly in the 

 drier districts, where turf is unknown. 



' The climate also suffers in this extremely dry rocky 

 district. In winter there is no shelter from the icy winds, 

 and everything is scorched in summer, unless the weather 

 be very wet.' There follow local statistics which I do not 

 think any of my readers would find interesting. 



'Romsdal Bailiwick. The amount of wood is almost the 

 same as in Nordmore, with only this difference that 

 Romsdal has always possessed fewer fir woods, and even 

 these are rapidly disappearing. In the seventeenth and 

 eighteenth centuries Britain imported largely from this 

 district ; and its near neighbourhood to scantly wooded 

 Soudmore, has occasioned a further drain on its resousces. 

 The inhabitants say that the day of the fir is past, that it will 

 not now thrive. This is a mistake. Good management 

 is all that is needed, both climate and shelter being pretty 

 good, and many trees rare in Nordmore are here quite 

 common. The people are economical in their own use of 

 the timber, though using unhewn timber for their houses, 

 or at most, with only two planks cut off. Here also the 

 climate has changed for the worse, wherever the woods 

 have been cut down, and the people are themselves aware 

 of this.' There follow statistics of the several parishes. 



' Soudmore Bailiwick. The whole of this district is very 

 mountainous, some of the peaks being 4000 feet high. 

 There is only a small area fit for the growth of timber, 

 and even this is much exposed to both sea-storms and 

 avalanches. Sheep and cattle go at large, and greatly add 

 to the destruction of the young trees. All these circum- 

 stances, combined with communal privileges, caused the 

 fir woods to vanish long ago. In fact, the scarcity of trees 

 is by the country people said to have been the work of 

 enemies in the olden time ; but I do not believe this, The 

 fragments of charcoal still to be found scattered on the 

 fields may have either been purposely manufactured, or 

 the trees may have been accidentally burned/ 



