Upon Questioning The Good Monk Respecting The Destruction Of Forests
Upon His Domain, He Informed Me That "During The Turkish
Administration
he had been annually pillaged by hundreds of vessels which arrived from
the neighbouring coasts of Asia Minor and
Of Egypt for the express
purpose of cutting timber to be sold by weight as fire-wood at their
various ports. He had protested in vain, there were no police, nor any
means of resistance at Cape St. Andrea, therefore the numerous crews had
defied him; and small presents from the owners of the vessels to the
Pacha at headquarters were sufficient to ensure immunity." I asked him
"why they wasted so much excellent fire-wood, and left the boughs to
hamper the surface?" He replied, "that as the wood was sold by weight,
the dealers preferred to cut the thick stems, as they packed closely on
board the vessels, and, being green, they weighed heavy; therefore they
rejected the smaller wood and left it to rot upon the ground." He
declared "that on several occasions the crews had quarrelled, and that
from pure spite they had set fire to the thick mass of dried boughs and
lighter wood which had spread over the surface, and destroyed immense
numbers of young trees." I had observed that large tracts had been burnt
during the preceding year. He was delighted at the English occupation,
as his property would now be protected, and in a few years the trees
would attain a considerable size.
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