THE BO'XESS PIT-WOOD TRADE. 9 



II. The Bo'ness Pit-Wood Trade. 1 By Colonel F. Bailey. 



The importation into the port of Bo'ness, which commenced 

 about thirty-five years ago, of pit-wood for use in Scottish mines, 

 rose last year to 116,991 loads, representing rather more than that 

 number of tons of wood. 



For the first few years the timber was carried in small sailing 

 vessels of from 150 to 200 tons. These took in their cargo at 

 Christiansand, Christiania Fiord, and other ports on the south- 

 western coast of Norway, whence freights were low, and the 

 vessels carried back Scotch coal. Somewhat later, shipments 

 began in sailing vessels of larger size from western Swedish ports, 

 chiefly from Gottenborg, the terminus of the trans-peninsular 

 canal, down which much pit-wood was, and still is, floated from 

 the shores of lakes Wener and Wetter. Sailing vessels up to 

 600 or 700 tons burden still convey large cargoes of wood from 

 Norwegian and western Swedish ports; but steamers up to 1500 

 tons burden are for the most part now employed in the Gbtten- 

 borg trade. Pit-timber come3 orer chiefly in the form of round 

 props, cut to lengths of from 2 feet to 8 feet, and having a mini- 

 mum diameter at the small end of 2^ inches for the shortest and 8 

 inches for the longest pieces. Pit-wood from the south-eastern coast 

 of Sweden is, however, as a rule imported in the form of poles from 

 9 or 10 feet to 35 feet in length, with a minimum top-diameter of 

 3 inches ; but a small consignment of heavier poles, up to a top- 

 diameter of 6 inches, also reaches us from that region. Much of 

 this longer timber is carted in by farmers from woods growing at 

 distances up to ten miles from the loading ports; and large quantities 

 of the shorter props are carted, sledged, or floated down to Swedish 

 ports on the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia ; while, during the last 

 fifteen years, immense cargoes of produce of this class have been 

 shipped from Paissian ports on the northern shores of the Gulf of 

 Finland, and on the eastern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. 



In both Norway and Sweden, growing forests from which mine- 

 timber is still obtained are becoming as scarce near the sea-coast 

 as they are on the banks and shores of rivers and lakes ; and the 

 principal shipments are now made in steamers from Finland, where 

 vast forests exist, but where railways have not yet penetrated, 



'- Written from information kindly supplied by Mr D. K. Harrower, of 

 the firm of John Denholm & Co., pit-wood importers and timber merchants, 

 Bo'ness. 



VOL. XVI. PART I B 



