170 GEEMANY. 



the Great Donon. Silver firs and pines have been planted by the hand of man, 

 and the latter are by no means common except on rugged slopes having a 

 southern aspect. Larches are scarce. The fi.ne forests to the north of the gap of 

 Zabern and in Lorraine consist of beech-trees, silver firs, and pines, and those 

 around Bitsch and Château-Salins, which furnished the French navy with timber, 

 are noted for their beauty. In Alsace more than a third of the whole area is 



Fig. 99.— The Ruins of St. Ulrich, near Kappoltsweiler. 



wooded, in Lorraine hardly a fourth. Nearly one-half of these woods are the 

 property of the communes — the State, corporations, and private owners sharing in 

 the remainder. Wild animals have almost disappeared from the forests. The 

 elk, the bison, the aurochs, the reindeer, the wild horse, the beaver, the lynx, the 

 bear, the wild goat, and perhaps the chamois, were formerly met with, but have 

 now disappeared. The last bear was killed in 1760, no wild goat has been seen 

 since 1798, and the stag has disappeared from the Eastern Vosges, though still found 



