vi PREFACE. 
trade, afforded facilities which are considered by me 
equivalent to a liberal pecuniary contribution. When 
the proceeds of sales from it may suffice for the purpose, 
they will be spent. in the publication of a companion 
Volume on the Ethnography and Present Condition of 
the Finnish People, which is also ready for the press. 
Meanwhile the printing of the fourth of the series has 
been begun. It relates to the Forests and Forestry of 
Northern Russia, and embodies details of the exploitation 
of forests by Jardinage and its effects. 
The object aimed at is to produce popular technical 
treatises which may be useful to students of Forest 
Science who have not access to the works quoted, by 
stating views which have been advanced and have com- 
manded attention, and by citing, or giving translations 
of statements bearing upon these, in such a form as to 
place readers in a position to work out for themselves a 
solution of problems raised, should they be so disposed, 
T happened to spend the summer of 1879 in St. Peters- 
burg, ministering in the British and American Chapel in 
that ‘city, while the pastor sought relaxation for a few 
months at home. I was for years the minister of the con- 
gregation worshipping there, and J had subsequently 
repeatedly spent the summer among them in similar cir- 
cumstances. I was at the time studying the Forestry of 
Europe; and I availed myself of opportunities afforded by 
my journey thither through Norway, Sweden, and Finland, 
by my stay in Russia, and by my return through Germany 
and France, to collect information bearing upon the enqui- 
ries in which I was engaged, On my return to Scotland I 
