244 FORESTRY IN AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



\_NOTE. — The following reports were received at the Department too 

 late for insertion in their proper places. '\ 



AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. 



REPORT OF CONSUL GILBSRT. 



THE statistics are in the main derived from the Ritter von Guttenberg 

 of this city, who is at the head of the forest administration in this 

 part of the empire of Austria. 



The general character of the larger portion of territory embraced within 

 this consular district is so very singular that, considering also the peculiarity 

 of the climate, it appears doubtful if the ordinances and methods, which I 

 have to report, will be found of much practical value in the United States. 

 Permit me to devote a few paragraphs to these points. 



The traveler approaching Trieste from Vienna by railroad crosses, about 

 twenty miles east of the city, a ridge and sees below him a deep and rather 

 fertile valley watered by the small river Reka, bounded by rounded, barren, 

 stony hills, in a few cases rising to the dignity of mountains ; he soon finds 

 himself upon a high table-land diversified by a few low ridges, the surface 

 almost covered with light-gray broken limestone, which twenty years since 

 was rarely relieved by scattered dwarfed oaks and a very scanty vegetation. 

 The great cave of Adelsberg, about thirty miles (air line) east northeast from 

 Trieste, is in this limestone formation, and all the vicinity of this city is 

 undermined by caves and grottoes. The Reka, above named, flows into the 

 grotto of San Canzian and is lost. Whether Vergil's Timavus, about fifteen 

 miles northwest of Trieste, be the outlet of the Reka is not fully decided ; if 

 so, twenty centuries have reduced the nine mouths through which it plunged 

 into the sea to three. 



Another river at Pisino, in Istria, passes in like manner into a cave and 

 is lost. 



This surface of broken limestone, deprived of moisture by the subterranean 

 channels, is called in German karst, in Italian carso. 



The limestone formation extends from near Gorizia, along the Gulf of 

 Trieste, and thence south and east, so as to include Istria, a part of Croatia, 

 Dalmatia, the Herzegowina and West Bosnia. 



Generally, valleys excepted, whenever the declivity is toward the sea, 

 both the declivities and the table-lands are sterile, desolate karst. A feature — 



