94 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
are fast disappearing. Mr Leonard, of Somerset, in reply 
toa query issued from the Colonial Office in 1864, having 
remarked that the Yellow-wood tree forms a much less 
conspicuous element in the scenery than his memory pic- 
tured it doing some four-and twenty-years before, goes on 
to say,—‘ Of other forest trees there used to be an abun- 
dant supply in the forest that skirts our mountain here, 
but the large demand that rules in an age of bullock wag- 
gons for disselbooms and other waggon wood, is sure to 
clear out any but an inexhaustible supply of Assegai and 
Tron-wood trees, while the durability possessed by the olive 
post soon marked it out for the woodman’s axe, in procur- 
ing timber for the ever memorable Hartebest house of the 
first pioneers; and subsequently the same durability in the 
nature of the wood caused the continuous destruction of 
the tree for fencing stakes, when advancing civilisation 
demanded and gave way to buildings of brick and stone. 
‘Yellow-wood trees of any size, as well as Assegai, 
Olive, and Iron-wood trees are now becoming so scarce 
here that we may easily predict the speedy extirpation 
of them from amongst our natural productions ; and, 
unless human care and culture produce specimens, when 
those of the kloof and the rivulet have disappeared, the 
next generation will have to refer to some some botanical 
collection to see what they are like.’ 
About the same time the late Rev. J. W. Pears, the 
minister of the Dutch Reformed Church at Somerset, 
previously professor in the South African College, Cape- 
town, writing to me on another subject, said :—* When 
I came to the frontier 38 years ago there was grass every- 
where in abundance, in the plains sweet, and in the 
mountains sour ; and this, sometimes five or six feet high ; 
now none, excepting near rivers or on the tops of moun- 
tains,.is to be found. Formerly, also, the mountains were 
unoccupied, as no one chose to pay for them; the herbage 
was abundant; and the moisture was long detained, so 
. that all. the little streams continued to flow through the 
whole year. Now these mountains were all occupied, and 
