76 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OP COMPARTMENTS. 



the compartments of the forest taken as a whole. Its utility ends 

 .there and it must be omitted altogether from the Organisation 

 Report. 



Such are the points to be examined and noted. But, as a rule, 

 there is peculiar to each crop some special characteristic, some im- 

 portant fact, that is more or less obvious, which must be observed 

 and noted. Now it is one thing, then another. Experience, and the 

 acquired sense of the forester's art, which has sometimes been term- 

 ed his second sight, can alone enable him to recognise it. If it has 

 been passed unnoticed, if it is not clearly brought out, if it is not 

 faithfully interpreted in describing the compartments, that descrip- 

 tion may be lengthy, drawn up with care, specious, but for all that 

 inadequate and deceptive. 



To examine a compartment thoroughly after having obtained a 

 knowledge of its boundaries and taken his bearings, the Am^nagiste 

 may proceed as follows : — (i) Place on the boundary of the compart- 

 ment a guard who is to move along this line, while he himself moves 

 paralled to him inside the compartment at a distance of 30, 40 or 50 

 yards off; so that while the guard completes a circuit outside, he 

 himself also completes a circuit inside. As the Am^nagiste has to stop 

 frequently to observe, the guard must obviously stop too until the 

 former moves on again. The Amenagiste must be in no hurry, but 

 walk on slowly, taking in a general view rather than observing de- 

 tails, and he must avoid stopping to jot down notes, which act only 

 distracts the attention and falsifies the appreciation of facts ; (ii) the 

 circuit finished, he must formulate and clothe in words the ideas 

 taken in ; (iii) then walk through the middle of the compartment 

 from end to end, say through its greatest length, in order to assure 

 himself that the compartment is homogeneous throughout, and above 

 all to test or correct his first judgment. ^ (iv) That done, he must 

 sit down and write straight off the description required, and then, 

 (v) rest for a while before beginning to examine another necessarily 

 different compartment. This description fatigues the mind as it de- 

 mands sustained attention. It has no analogy whatsoever with the 

 formation of the compartments, in which work the only thing to do 



(1.) By marching along parallel lines, the Am6nagisfce does not gain 

 so complete a knowledge of the ground and the stock, and indeed is likely to 

 lose his way in the middle of the compartment. 



