THE FORESTS.

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being manufactured at the monastery of the Grande Chartreuse;two of these, the liqueur verte and the liqueur jaune, are verygood ; and a petit verre is an excellent restorative for the tiredtraveller. A very common spirit is that distilled from cherries,by crushing them when fresh, stones and all; it is calledkirchwasser, but I cannot recommend it. The Swiss beer is notworth much, but in the Tyrol a light and pleasant kind may beoften obtained. I have also occasionally been served with veryfair cider, especially in Savoy.

The forests still form no inconsiderable portion of the wealthof the inhabitants of the Alps, although they have in someplaces been much diminished by over-cutting. This has espe-cially happened in the neighbourhood of mines, and in conse-quence the people of the unfrequented communes have becomeso alive to this, that some jealousy is felt of strangers wander-ing about the mountains, lest they should discover metals andcause the destruction of the woods. Mr Wills relates 1 that thisapprehension gave him some trouble when he was treating forthe purchase of the site of his lovely Alpine home, the Eagle’sNest (near Sixt); and I remember in a remote Dauphine villagebeing straitly questioned by the muire as to whether myrambles had anything to do with mines. Their fears are notunreasonable, for the forests, besides producing some effectupon the rainfall, form natural defences against the rush of thespring avalanches ; and it is recorded that after the war of 1799,in which many of those near the St Gothard pass were destroyed,the neighbouring villages suffered terribly from this scourge.Hence the laws do not allow of timber being cut in certainforests called Bannwalde, and in most places the right of fellingtrees is strictly regulated, and the woods are under the in-spection of officials, communal or cantonal. In spots highupon the mountains, to which the only access is by difficultwinding paths, the timber is at once converted into charcoal,1 The Earth 's Sest, Cli. ii.