Page:TheTreesOfGreatBritainAndIreland vol03B.djvu/61

Rh between 4900 and 6500 feet; but on the Haizer peak M. Britsch saw a few trees on the north slope as high as 7100 feet.

The forest on Mt. Babor is of no great extent, but is an interesting one, con- sisting of a mixture of cedar, Quercus Mirbeckii, and Abies numidica, and will be described in our account of the last-named species. The brigadier in charge of this forest informed me that he had measured there a cedar 62 feet in girth. In the mountains of Maadid there are four distinct forests, generally speaking in bad condi- tion, and yielding scarcely any timber, though in one of them, called Ouled Khellouf, there are said to be some very large trees.

The forests which are the most important from every point of view are those in the west near Téniet-el-Hdad, and those in the east in the vicinity of Batna, visited by me last January.

The cedar occurs around Batna, both on the Aurés range and its spur Belezma. The forest of Sgag is 23 miles distant from Batna and covers 1200 acres. Between Batna and Biskra, about 20 miles north of the latter place, the forest of Djebel Lazereg is 1350 acres in area, and is noted for producing a peculiar kind of cedar timber, pink in colour and with a juniper-like odour. A very fine forest of considerable extent, 28,000 acres, lies around Mt. Chélia, the highest point in Algeria, 7500 feet altitude, 43 miles to the south-east of Batna; but it was practically inaccessible in January. In one part of it, the forest of Beni-Oudjana, 44,666 trees have been marked for felling, estimated to contain 3,615,000 cubic feet of timber, which will be offered for sale by the Government in the course of the present year.

I visited the forest of Belezma, which is only 12 miles to the north-west of Batna. The whole wooded area here under government control is 140,000 acres in extent; but of this the cedar occupies only 22,000 acres, ascending the mountain to its summit, 6900 feet, and descending on northern slopes to 3600 feet, and on southern slopes to 4300 feet. The forest was badly treated in former years, whole tracts of the finest trees having been clean cut away and the timber used in building the town of Batna. The drought which prevailed from 1875 to 1881 caused serious damage to the remaining trees, and many died, most of which, except those that have been lately felled, are still standing, Felling is done regularly every year, only dead trees being removed. The sapwood of these has rotted away, but the heart- wood remains quite sound and unaltered. This timber is mainly used for railway sleepers, though some has been utilised in house-building and for making wood pavement and furniture. None of it appears ever to have been exported; and it is a great pity to see such excellent wood utilised only for rough purposes. The price obtained for it is as it stands very low, 1d. to 2d. per cubic foot ; yet it is fairly accessible, as the haulage to Batna is very cheap, but the rate by railway from there to Philippeville, the nearest seaport, is 15s. per ton.

It snowed very heavily during my stay at the forester’s house near the top of the mountain; but so far as I could see, the cedar only grows here in a dense condition in the young stage, there being in the ravines fine stands of cedars 30 feet high, which are slightly mixed, like the rest of the forest, with Quercus Ilex, Juniperus thurifera, and Juniperus phœnicea, These young trees are narrowly