BOOK lY 



EAVAGEES OF FOEESTS. 



Under this title the reader naturally expects to see 

 animals on the stage, the bulk of which must be in joro- 

 portion to their formidable powers of destruction. But it 

 is quite the contrary, It is not the auroch with its shagg}^ 

 mane, nor the powerful stag, nor the wild boar that ravages 

 or destroys our forests, but tiny insects which slaughter 

 its aged denizens. 



If, when the warm l^reath of spring drives away the 

 rigour of winter and renews life in the fields, we enter 

 one of the great coniferous woods of Germany, we are 

 astonished at the tumult and activity which prevail in lieu 

 of the silence we went there to seek. Everything is in 

 movement. 



Groups of woodmen, foresters, and overseers move 

 about by hundreds, and stretch away like columns of skir- 

 mishers; it is a complete army in the field, Avhicli opens 

 out wherever there is a large space, and of which the 

 Avings are sometimes lost iu the windings of the roads, or 

 hidden by the projection of some hillock. This mass 

 of men always moves in order, distributed in troops com- 

 manded by experienced leaders. They are all provided 



