52 Nature protected 
Belgium 
On his 65th birthday, King Leopold 
II handed over to the nation several 
estates, some of great natural beauty, 
which were menaced by being built 
over, on condition that the forests 
which they contained should not be 
cut down, and that the other parts 
should be preserved unchanged. 
The Belgian government, in 1894, 
instructed the superintendents of the 
waters and forests to see that the 
scenery should not be altered by 
works of cultivation. Trees, remark- 
able for their shape or size, or from 
historic events associated with them, 
were to be well protected. 
Moreover, there exists a **Societe 
nationale pour la protection des sites'' 
which has obtained no little influence. 
