FORESTRY IN HUNGARY. 49 



and are passed through holes in the upper beam, merely resting 

 against the lower one, and being kept in position by the weight of 

 the water and wood jjressing against them ; they are given a slight 

 slope up stream by the projection in that direction of the lower of 

 the two horizontal beams. A similar arrangement, which is some- 

 times adopted in other places ; especially where the occurrence of 

 dangerous floods at certain seasons of the year renders it difficult to 

 maintain permanent works, is to erect, instead of the masonry 

 pillars, heavy timber tripods, against one side of which the grating 

 is fixed. The entire structure can then be removed at pleasure. 

 In the present case, advantage has been taken of a convenient 

 reach of the river, at the lower end of which are two canals leading 

 to two depots ; while at the upper end is the sluice gate, used for 

 the passage of rafts. The boom crosses the stream between the 

 canals and the sluice gate ; but owing to its comparatively great 

 length, its direction is not far from being parellel to the line of 

 the current. Great quantities of fuel come down, sometimes as 

 much as 500,000 cubic feet being collected at one time. This 

 accounts for the great length of the boom which is necessary both 

 to enable the rafting channel above it to be kept open, and also 

 to provide sufficient escape for the water, and thus prevent its 

 being dammed back by the wood, which lies in a dense mass 

 extending down to the very bottom of the river. The log-ra£ts, 

 each of which consists of about 650 cubic feet of timber; are here 

 secured with cross pieces both fore and aft. The bed of the river 

 is no longer rocky, and there is no necessity to give the heavy 

 ends " play." The rafts, which are floated two or three together, 

 are attached with ropes, one behind the other, and thus taken 

 down to the Danube, and thence to Buda-Pesth and Orsova. 

 Before the heavy customs duties were instituted on the frontiers of 

 Germany, most of the large timber from the district used to be 

 despatched by raU for sale in that country. 



While we were at the boom, very little firewood was there ; and 

 some men upon a raft were engaged in fishing up sunken pieces 

 from the bottom of the stream. Their method of anchoring them- 

 selves, by means of a pole pushed through a hole in their raft and 

 jammed by the force of the current, is very simple and ingenious. 

 We visited the depot, in which there was an amazingly large 

 quantity of firewood, most of which is there converted into char- 

 coal for use in the smelting furnaces. 



On the morning of the 13th we left by train for Brezova, and 



VOL. XII., PART I. D 



