DR. A. BARCLAY.

The sad announcement in the Pioneer of August 4th of the death of Dr. Barclay in Simla, reminds us how great a loss his death is to the Forest Department, for he was probably with Dr. D. D. Cunningham of Calcutta, in the front rank of those who were at work in the new and splendid field of the fungoid diseases of plants and among them of Forest trees.

Dr. Barclay's researches into the life history of the leafdiseases of the plants of the Punjab Himalaya are well-known to all readers of the Proceedings of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and of the Scientific Memoirs of Medical Officers of the Army of India. His interesting papers on the Æcidia which attack the needles of the Pinus longifolia, Pinus excelsa, Abies Smithiana and Deodar will form the ground work for those enquirers who take an interest in the subject and are disposed to follow up his researches and ascertain on what plants the alternative generations occur and how the damage done by the fungi may be stopped. In April and May last, when the Forest School students were on tour in the Jaunsar hills, we found the Chir' Pine Ecidium at Chakrata and the Kail' one at Deota. The former is probably Ecidium complanatum, Barclay, the latter Ecidium brevius, Barclay, and both were described in Vol. 59 of the Journal of the Asiatic Society. In a recent letter, however, to the present writer, Dr. Barclay added "The Ecidium_you mention as occurring so 'freely on Pinus longifolia is E. orientale, Cooke (see Indian 'Forester, Vol. III.) I re-named it E. complanatum because I 'found that Cooke had included two Ecidia under that name (those ' occurring on P. longifolia and P. excelsa). But I find that the 'name E. orientale, Cooke, is sufficiently well defined for the parasite on P. longifolia, so I shall, in revising my list, drop my own name and retain Cooke's. The life history of these Æcidia is still unknown. One or other is very possibly related to the fungus 'you mention as Coleosporium (C. senecionis). In the higher ranges about here (Hattu and Chor) I have found a Senecio (alatus?) abundantly attacked with a species of Coleosporium, but I have had no opportunity of experimenting with it. In 'those regions, if it is connected with either of the pine Ecidia, 'it must be with that on P. excelsa as P. longifolia is absent at those elevations. I have once, during my stay here, seen the var. corticola on P. longifolia, but I should not be astonished to hear that it occurs frequently elsewhere, especially at low elevations along the Himalayas." While on tour we searched for the corticola variety which is the dangerous one for the growth, but did not find it-it will be a satisfaction if we do not, our pines have enemies enough without adding one more which is known in Europe as a terrible pest. Any of our readers who desire to know more of its habits may read Chapter XII of Marshall Ward's Timber and some of its diseases' where its history and effects are described at length.

We also found in Jaunsar the beautiful orange tassels of a fungus which affects the Abies Smithiana, which Drs. Cooke and Barclay have described as Ec. Thomsoni, but we have still to trace the plant which affords the fungus of the alternative generation.

Another fungus of interest to Forest Officers and which we also found in Jaunsar is that on the Rhododendron which Dr. Barclay has recently so fully described and figured as Chrysomyxa Himalense. He informed the present writer that he believed he had succeeded in tracing it from the Rhododendron to Hypericum cernuum which the Forest School found growing with a beautiful yellow fungus on it at Deota. We have said ample to show our readers what a loss the Forest Department has sustained in Dr. Barclay's unfortunate death and conclude with the following extract from the "Pioneer."

"We much regret to announce the death at Simla on Sunday morning of typhoid of Surgeon-Major Barclay. The deceased gentleman had been ill for more than a month. Dr. Barclay has had a distingushed career as a member of the Indian Medical Service, and at the time when the Leprosy Commission was appointed, was one of the two medical officers assigned by the Government of India to assist in its inquiries. The Commission was well within sight of the end of its labours when the fatal disease which Dr. Barclay himself had long done his best to overthrow, struck him down. A mournful interest will now attach to the interesting paragraphs on typhoid in India contained in the last report which Dr. Barclay wrote as Secretary to the Sanitary Commissioner with the Government of India. "The beginning has been made," ran the first of them, "of an important advance in the investigation of the pathology of enteric fever in India." The event in the Secretary's own case has proved with fatal cogency that it is only a beginning."

BURNT IN FOREST FIRES.

The Revue des Eaux et Forêts' of March 10th last gives a sad account of two fires in France, each of which ended in a terrible disaster. In one case, the forest of Fretoy in the Yonne was set alight by an old woodcutter who appears to have gone to sleep with a lighted pipe in his mouth with the result of not only setting fire to the forest, but to his own clothes and burning himself to death. The other case was even more serious. A fire broke out on February 27th in the Luceram Forest near Nice, and, while endeavouring to extinguish it, a forest guard named Chertin with two soldiers was caught between the fires coming up two different ravines and all three were killed. The fire was clearly shown to have been the work of incendiaries.

RIGHTS AND PRIVILEGES.

The receipt by us of two interesting Forest Annual Reports, those of the Presidencies of Madras and Bombay, for 1889-90, has led us to ponder over the apparently widely differing ideas of what are forest 'rights' in the meaning of the Forest Acts, which are held by the authorities in the various provinces of India. It is noticeable, at the outset, that though rights' and 'privileges are household words' in the common talk of Forest Officers in this country, yet that the former is nowhere defined in the Acts, and the latter is nowhere mentioned. Baden-Powell defines a forest right as "a right existing in favour of one person over the 'property of another." Meaume, in his 'Jurisprudence Forestière says "l'usage, dans les forêts, est une servitude reelle qui donne 'au detenteur d'un immeuble le droit d'obtenir la delivrance, dans la forêts d'autrui, de certains produits dont la nature et l'importance sont determinées par le besoin de celui auquel le 'droit appartient et par le titre constitutif a servitude' being a 'droit qui est attaché a un immeuble et qui ne peut pas en être separé "-that, we take it, means that a right is, to use a word which is better known and defined legally, an easement over someone else's property, the title to which easement is fully maintainable at law so that if the property is sold or leased or willed or given away, the easement goes with it. We cannot help thinking that if the Easements Act had preceded the Forest Act, the word Easement' would have replaced the word 'Right' to the much better understanding of its nature and legal position. We should not then have seen notifications issue conferring on villages and individuals extensive rights over the Government estates, rights which presumably must hereafter, even in spite of Section. 23, be permanently maintained, and pass from generation to generation of the villagers or the descendants of the original grantees. This action has not, we are glad to see, been taken by the Government of Madras and Bombay, and the Forest Settlement Officers acting under their orders.

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So far as settlement has yet given in the Northern Circle of Bombay, as Mr. Shuttleworth says, "no rights, save of way and water access, have been found by the Forest Settlement Officers to 'exist in respect to any of the forests, which have come under their judicial investigations and proceedings and consequently right 'holders have no locus standi in the forests," The Conservator of the Southern Circle, also says "excepting rights of way and water, no absolute rights exist." and we believe that with small exceptions, the same is the result in Madras. In some other places too, there are no rights, for instance there are none in the forests of Dehra Dun and Jaunsar Bawar, the N.-W. P. Government having probably concluded that just as it had the full power to lease parts of its waste lands

whenever it liked and from the date of lease to stop the exercise in those parts of all acts which were prejudicial to the lessees' full enjoyment of his land, it could do the same with such portions as it selected to make into permanent forest estates as 'reserved forests.' It would have been a great advantage to the future welfare of their Governments, forest estates, and indeed also, we expect, to the future finances of those Governments. if some others. had similarly recognised that the customary licence of removal of forest produce, or of forest grazing, was not a right of the nature of a permanent easement, inseparate from the estate, but only a privilege enjoyed under the good will of the owner and until the land was required for purposes which rendered its continuance impossible or at any rate more or less prejudicial.

Although, however, the Government of Bombay and others, have not agreed to allow that it is advisable that such acts should be permanently erected into legal easements, they have rightly and properly come to the conclusion that their stoppage over large areas cannot be permitted with due regard to the welfare of the agriculturists and the poorer classes of the community; and so, in most provinces, some provision for the exercise of these, what we may call 'rejected rights' has been justly made and 'privileges' have consequently been given in various ways. If I, in good nature, allow my neighbour to cut the grass in my meadow to feed his pony, I should be rather foolish if I drew up a deed and gave him and his heirs and successors the right to do so for ever, and thereby damaged the value of my estate; but it would not be foolish if I informed him that he must understand that I give him no legal footing, but only the enjoyment of the grass until I found it necessary to rescind my permission. This is what has been done. Rights of way, and rights of water, have been admitted as clearly proved by long prescriptive use, but since the license of produce and pasture has been invariably stopped when necessary, it has not been similarly admitted, but provision has been made instead for its temporary exercise in such a way as to allow the Government full power to regulate it from time to time as it thinks fit.

And so, in Dehra Dún and Jaunsar, privileges have been given under Government order allowing in specified villages pasture at fixed cheap rates, to fixed numbers of cattle, and cheap fuel free, subject to regulation that one half of the area may be closed at any time. This is as it should be, we think, but in Bombay it would seem that the privileges are often so extensive as almost to endanger the existence of the forests. Mr. Shuttleworth says "the value of the forest produce removed under privileges is very considerable indeed, particularly in those forests where a few kinds of trees are reserved and the remaining trees are given to the people to cut and take, as the exercise of privileges is not ' restricted to fixed times, is not limited in most cases to defined 'quantity, is not subjected to control such as would result from

'the introduction of a permit system, it is not possible to arrive at any correct knowledge of the value of the exploitations of timber, firewood, bambus, ráb material, grass, fruits, flowers, &c., &c., &c., 'brought out of the forests free of charge by forest villagers, wild 'tribes and others, for domestic use, or for barter, or sale. The 'free pasturage enjoyed by cattle of forest villagers inside re'served forests, alone, represents a considerable income. As the ' entry of hypothetical figures in an administration report is objec'tionable, it would not be correct to enter an estimate, which 'might require six or seven figures to represent it, and it is 'needless to say that privileges, unregulated by conditions which 'forestry demands, are a direct consuming attack upon the capital ' value of the forests, and that the value of the damage done to 'the productive powers of the forests, added to the unrealised value of the produce removed or enjoyed free of charge, if worked out, 'would give a startling result."

He apparently holds very strong views on the subjects for he says that in regard to the Thana forests there can be no doubt but that they have been consistently overworked under the 'exercise of admitted privileges." The Government however do not quite hold such pessimist views and believe that the Thana forests are "now for the first time only beginning to 'be worked up to their full capabilities." The opinion of the Government of India on the subject of privileges deserves to be here quoted.

"It is observed that the local demand is still, to a consider'able extent, met by the grant of privileges for which no legal 'obligation exists, and which are said to place considerable ob'stacles in the way of rational forest management. The extraction of rab outside the coupes of the year seems to present a 'serious impediment to sound Forestry, and I am desired to draw 'the special attention of the Bombay Government to this danger. 'The greater number of the privileges, however, though they in'volve a more or less serious sacrifice in revenue, are not so 'harmful to the future development of the forests that they cannot be met under the provisions of regular Working-Plans. 'His Excellency in Council leaves it with confidence to the Bombay Government to decide whether, and to what extent, the 'financial sacrifices due to the grant of privileges are justifiable."

In Madras, the 'privilege' question has clearly been treated quite differently and undoubtedly more judiciously, but the Board of Revenue and the Government are not quite of the same mind, for while the former says:

The question of free village forests and pastures is one that naturally forms a part of the district organization, yet it is one that in the present state of settlement has had to be more or 'less pushed into the background. The Nilgiris, therefore, is the only district in which the matter is at all complete, though in 'most other districts, and especially in Nellore. it remains under