112 CORSICA 



as 1763,- the French general, Dumouriez, advised that in view 

 of its value the timber of the island should be marked for fell- 

 ing. When the Consulta met at Corte in October, 1764,^ the 

 people were forbidden the free use of timber without a permit, 

 a measure passed, however, to protect the forests from the 

 French rather than from the local population. From 1759, 

 the year in which Corsica was annexed to France, to as late as 

 1824, the forests were administered in a more or less haphazard 

 fashion, by diverse administrations, the Eaux and Forets, 

 Nancy and Domaines. Since the latter date, they have been 

 placed under and managed by a consistently technical adminis- 

 tration. 



Forest Problems. — Seneca, after his banishment to Corsica, 

 was perhaps not in a frame of mind to judge his new friends 

 fairly, but his taunt:'* "Their first law is to revenge them- 

 selves, their second to live by plunder, their third to lie, and 

 their fourth to deny the gods," has come down to us in history 

 as the dictum of a great and famous man. Whether it could 

 be taken as corroborative evidence or not, the fact is apparent 

 to-day that local forest users are lawless and extremely difficult 

 to control. Fire, excessive grazing in its most objectionable 

 form — by goats — and minor ^ trespass still furnish as knotty 

 problems to the forest administrators of the island as they 

 have in the past. 



Fires, especially, have been so disastrous that a change 

 from the shelterwood to the selection system has become a 

 necessity. To-day, in federal forests, grazing is practically un- 

 restricted, although absolutely contrary to the forest code. 

 And when, in 1834, an attempt to regulate grazing was made, 

 armed opposition arose to the enforcement of the law. While 

 the island is well settled (by the census of 191 1,'' there are 33 



2 The History of Corsica, I. H. Caird, p. 182. 



3 Id., p. 155. 

 * Id., p. I. 



^ See trespass, p. 154. 



^ Notes prepared by de Lapasse, conservator of the 30th conservation who 

 kindly reviewed and corrected the chapter on Corsica, assisted by the H. M. 

 Consul at Ajaccio, The Hon. Henry Dundas. 



