too negligent to extinguifh it entirely. T h e fecond cauie we may
trace to the political conftitution and laws o f the country: generally
fpeaking, it is in the crown forefts that thole conflagrations
take place. In many diftri&s the pedants obtain their wood
from the king’s forefts, and pay for it a certain tax. There are
precile limits within which they are permitted to cut, and they
are liable to be puniihed with a fine, i f they are found to proceed
in their operations beyond the fixed boundaries : but i f a fire
happens to break out in any part o f a foreft belonging to the
crown, the pealantry o f that diftrift have a right to cut down
and carry home fuch trees as have been injured by the burning.
Thus the peafants who are in want o f wood, and have too fmall
a (hare in the foreft for the fupply o f their demands, are prompted
from an interefted motive to fet fire to it in their own neighbourhood,
being entitled to appropriate whatever trees have been
touched by the flames, -which are generally in fuch abundance as
to ftock a houlekeeper with wood for | four, or perhaps fix years,
according to the magnitude o f the ravages which the foreft has
fuffered. It would appear that the government, if it were aware
ot the circumftance, might effeftually check thefe unlawful acts;
not fo effectually by inflicting heavy punilhments, as by ordering
that the peafants fhould pay the fame fum for the ufe o f the
wood that might be gathered, injured by conflagration, as for
that in a found fta te ; and that till the former was ufed they
fhould not be allow ed to cut any wood in the foreft. There may,
however, be difficulties in executing fuch meafures, which a
ftranger
ftranger is not acquainted w i th ; and hence we will not blame
the government for what may not perhaps be in its power to
remedy.
. I faw in this foreft the difaftrous wreck o f one o f thofe conflagrations,
which had devoured the wood through an extent o f
fix or feven miles, and which exhibited a moft difmal fpeftacle.
You not only faw trunks and large remains o f trees lying in con-
fufion on the ground, and reduced to the ftate of charcoal, but
alfo trees ftanding upright, which, though they had efcaped de-
ftruftion, had yet been miferably fcorched: others, black and
b e n d in g down to one fide, whilft in the midft o f the ruins o f
trunk and branches appeared a group o f young trees, nfing to
replace the former generation ; and, full o f vigour and vegetable
life, feemed to be deriving their nourifhment from the afhes o f
their parents.
T h e devaftations occasioned by ftorms in the midft o f tho e
forefts is ftill more impreffive, and prefents a pifture ftill more
diverfified and majeftic. It fern s wholly inconceivable in what
manner the wind pierces through the thick affemblage o f thofe
woods, carrying ruin and defolation into particular diftrifts, where
there is neither opening nor fcope for its ravages. Poffibly it defen
d s perpendicularly from heaven im the nature o f a tornado,
or whirlwind, whofe violence nothing can oppofe, and which
triumphs over all refiftance. Trees of enormous fize are torn from
their roots, magnificent pines, which would have braved on the
ocean tempefts more furious, are bent like a bow, and touch the
earth