FIEST PAET. 



THE PRESERVATION OF FORESTS. 



CHAPTER I. 



GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 



The traveller who, leaving behind him the wood- 

 divested districts of Europe, suddenly conies upon our 

 magnificent forests, is struck with astonishment at the 

 luxuriant growth of the fine specimens of timber with 

 which he meets in his wanderings. But his astonish- 

 ment at their beauty fades into insignificance, compared 

 with his surprise at the cool neglect with which they 

 are treated, when he remembers the care aiid attention 

 with which the different European governments treat 

 the few forests still remaining in their possession. 



And there is nothing wonderful in this. "What does 

 one see on all sides ? Extensive districts destroyed by 

 fire, offering to the eye nothing but the half-burnt 

 trunks of the great trees, which, like gigantic spectres, 

 seem from their rigid look to protest against man's 

 neglect ; whole regions of waste ground, entirely denuded 

 of timber by the axe of the greedy lumberman, who 

 carries off all the wood useful in his business, and most 

 unnecessarily destroys all that he considersunserviceable; 

 and, lastly, lands once cut over, (1) now covered with 



(1) Taillis— copse, in our English wood-language — the underwood ia 

 cut every 10, 12 or 14 years, lor hop-poles, broom-handles, hurdles, &o., 

 and sells for from $40 to $120 per acre, standing. Taillis, from tailler, 

 to cut, evidently conveys the idea of this mode of treatment. (Query- 

 does our cry, when we see the hunted fox, tallyho, pronounced, or rather 

 yelled, Tarlyo, derive from " au tallis, ho !") — Trs. 



