The reclamation of shifting sands and sand dunes has also received considerable attention and, to some extent, the reboisement of mountain slopes in the Crimea and Caucasus. Of the former, some 10 million acres are in existence in European Russia, and in the province of Woronesh alone each year 100,000 acres are added. For 50 years sporadical work in their recovery was done. Not until 1891 and 1892, when two droughty famine years had led to an investigation of agricultural conditions, was a systematic attempt proposed, and this was begun in 1897. By 1902, some 80,000 acres had been fixed, and by 1904, 150,000 acres. In this work the government contributes 36% of the cost, the benefited communities the balance. In addition, 1,500 square miles of swamps in Western Russia were reclaimed by extensive canals and recovered with meadow and forest at a cost of $300,000, of which the Imperial Treasury paid one-third, the owners one-half, the local government the balance. While rational forest management, as we have seen, is far from being generally established, the government tries at least to prevent waste and to pave the way from exploitation to regulated management. FINLAND. The Grand Duchy of Finland in the northeast of Russia is still in some respects independent of Russia. Finland, the “land of a thousand lakes” and of most extensive forests, is hardly less important as a wood producer than Russia itself; its wood exports amounting at present to around 200 million cubic feet and over 25 million dollars in value, represent over 50 per cent. of its trade, and its most important resource. Settled in the 7th century by an Aryan tribe, the Finns, congeners of the Magyars, who subdued the aboriginal Laplanders, Finland became by conquest in the 12th century, and remained for 500 years, a province of Sweden. In the wars between Sweden and Russia; parts of this province were conquered by Russia, and finally, in 1809, Sweden lost the whole; but the Finns succeeded in preserving national unity and partial independence under a constitution, adopted in 1772 and recognized by the Czar. Finland stands very much in the same relation to Russia as does Hungary to Austria, the union being merely a personal one: the Czar is the ruler or Grand Duke, but the administration is otherwise largely separate from that of the empire, under a Governor-General, appointed by the Czar, and a Senate of 18 members at Helsingfors, with a national parliament of the four estates, nobles, clergy, burgers, peasants, which convenes every five years; the Czar having the veto power over its legislation. The War Department of Russia, however, is in charge of military affairs, and other departments seem to be under more or less supervision of the Russian administration. Lately repressive measures are threatening or have nearly accomplished the destruction of this autonomy.