284 NATURE [JuLy 17, 1902 
(1) I\comr. (1) EXPENDITURE. 
Annual recurrent Income per acre :— Annual recurrent Expenditure per acre :— 
Sporting Rent Lo 7 10 Tithe Rent Charge ... Nee as, Bs Poy to St 
Wand) Tax .. <i roe oft be fe} 15 
Fencing and Draining Onn 4 
Rates we ; (oot) 
Property Tax GO) 104 
Mole Catcl ing Om Ome 
Bailiff Wage @) 4 
197) @ fo 7 0 
(2) FELLING RicreipTs—4q4 ACRES. (2) MONEYS DUE AT EACH FELL. 
Total 
weceiuke Expenses Expenses Net 
Date. Age. Trees Felled. including of of Sale. Receipts. Cost and 4 per Rent and 4 per Total Balance 
underwood. Extraction. Date. cent. Interest. cent. Interest. due. due. 
5. 6 G & iG 
1861 15 1059 Larch at 9d. 40 & Bh 20 1846-61 72 Sc ZOWaaee 92 SesO3 
{ 251 Larch at 2/4 \ 1861-72 97 564 ae cio 
1372 26; 200Oak at 7d. } 42 8 ol BNicecmugt ae we ae wae 5a x 97 
| 56 Spruce at 1/3 | . 
162 Larch at Bien | Bae 1872-80 118 io 9 127 
1880 341 174 Oak at 2/5\' 85 4 Grae 7 63 a A. =! a 64 
40 Spruce at 2/2) | 5 10 
143 Larch at 6/6 Boe | 1880-92 102 wee 15 117 
1892 46, 100 Oakat 4/4 76, 3 Glearinet (Scere, bY/ Te xs 60 
8 Spruce at 3/2 | 4 10 | 
{ 35 Larch, 735 c. ft. \ 1892-1901 85 ae Ose 95 
I90I 55~ 268 Oak, 4000 , 240! 8. «ol 22h ec 17 Or . 
. | 10 Spruce,200 i, J 3 f 1901 Estimated Profit after paying balance due, £75=419 
1 Items where estimate only was available. Such estimate must be 
considered approximate only. 
per acre. 
PLantinG Cost, £40; RENT, £l. 
An account follows of some French forests near Valenciennes 
and Compiégne, the latter having been selected for this year’s 
excursion of the Society. It is shown that the French coppice- 
with-standards of St. Amand, with a rotation of twenty-five 
years, produces a netannual revenue of £1 2s. 8d. per acre, and 
that the splendid State forest of Retz, with an area of 32,550 
acres under beech and oak, produces a net annual revenue of 
17s. 7a. per acre, with a rotation of 150 years. Dr. Somer- 
ville, of the Board of Agriculture, the President of the English 
Arboricultural Society, contributes a notice on Prof. Schwap- 
pach’s report on Prussian experiments with forest trees. The 
results most interesting to us are those obtained with Fraxznus 
americana, which withstands inundations better than Fraxinus 
excelstor, and develops its foliage fourteen days later than the 
latter, thus escaping ordinary spring frosts. Lar7x leptolepis, 
the Japanese larch, is also said to resist insects and fungi better 
than the European larch, while it easily reproduces injured 
leaders. 
A Forestry Society has just been started in Ireland, so that 
all parts of the British Isles are now enlisted in the cause. 
W. R. FISHER. 
RECENT DISCOVERIES IN CHINESE 
TURKESTAN. 
ID URING the last twelve years or so, the attention of scholars 
has been repeatedly arrested by remarkable discoveries of 
ancient Hindu manuscripts in Central Asia, In 1889, Lieutenant 
Bower found an ancient birch-bark manuscript in Kuchar, in the 
northern portion of Chinese Turkestan. This ‘*‘ Bower Manu- 
script ” was at once recognised as the oldest Indian manuscript 
extant. In 1891 and 1892, M. Petrovsky, Imperial Consul- 
General of Russia at Kashgar, and the Rev. F. Weber, 
missionary in Leh, Ladakh, made no less important finds of 
old manuscripts in the region of Kashgar. Again, in 1897, the 
French traveller M. Dutreuil de Rhins found, in the vicinity 
of Khotan, some leaves of a very ancient birch-bark manuscript, 
in which M. Senart recognised fragments of a Prakrit version 
of the well-known Buddhist text, the Dhammapada. Mean- 
while Dr. Hoernle, then principal of the Calcutta Madrasah, 
to whom we are indebted for a splendid edition of the ‘‘ Bower 
Manuscript,” had drawn the attention of the Government of | 
India to the remarkable records of ancient Hindu civilisation 
| Turkestan, 
structions were issued to the British officials in Kashgar and 
Ladakh concerning the acquisition of antiquities from Chinese 
and a ‘‘British Collection of Central-Asian 
| Antiquities” was gradually formed at Calcutta. 
| 
| 
But all these had been more or less casual discoveries, and as 
soon as it became known that European officials were ready to 
pay high prices for such antiquities, native ‘‘ treasure-seekers ” 
made it their business to ransack the ancient sites in the desert, 
not without damaging them, for manuscripts and other remains, 
and some of them were even unscrupulous enough to manufac- 
ture ‘old books” and sell them to Europeans as ‘‘ antiques” 
unearthed in the desert. In these circumstances it became 
really a matter of urgency that systematic explorations, by some 
competent scholar, should at once be undertaken in these parts, 
all the more so as no part of Chinese Turkestan had ever been 
explored from an archeological point of view. No man could 
have been better fitted for this task than Dr. M. A. Stein, who, 
by his excellent topographical and archeological work in 
Kashmir and other parts of India, as well as by his scholarly 
edition and translation of the ‘‘ Chronicles of the Kings of 
Kashmir,” has shown that he combines the thoroughness and 
profound knowledge of the true scholar with the energy and 
hardiness, the practical experience and tact of the explorer. 
All students of India must feel thankful to the Indian 
Government for securing the services of such a man for 
the archeological and topographical exploration of Chinese 
Turkestan. 
In June, 1900, Dr. Stein was placed by the Government of 
India on a year’s special duty, for the purpose of exploring 
the southern portion of Chinese Turkestan and more especially 
the region of Khotan. A Chinese passport from the Tsung-li- 
Yamen was obtained,, authorising him to travel and make 
excavations in Chinese territory. The Survey of India Depart- 
ment rendered material assistance by deputing one of the sub- 
surveyors, Babu Ram Singh, to accompany Dr. Stein on his 
travels, and by providing the necessary equipment of surveying 
instruments. Thus Dr. Stein was enabled, throughout the 
whole of his journey, to carry on geographical work along with 
his most interesting archzological researches. 
A ‘‘Preliminary Report,’’! published by Dr. Stein shortly 
after the completion of his journey, gives information about 
| the character and scope of his explorations and their principal 
to be found in Central Asia, and on his recommendation in- | 
NO. 1707, VOL. 66 | 
1“ Preliminary Report on a Journey of Archzological and Topographical 
Exploration in Chinese Turkestan’ By M. A. Stein, Indian Educational 
Service. Published under the authority of H.M.'s Secretary of State for 
India in Council. (London, i901.) 
