64 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



ways — by sledge, by " rieses " (prepared tracks down a hillside), 

 wire ropeways, etc. On the water the work is done by special 

 transport companies, and the timber is either floated loose in 

 rocky rivers, or in rafts in smoother waters. On the lakes 

 enormous agglomerations of timber, cabled together, are towed 

 by tugs or otherwise. Sometimes in rocky rivers the stream is 

 turned (as is done on a far larger scale at the falls of the 

 St Lawrence), or reservoirs are formed to obtain a strong head 

 of water, or occasionally the stream bed is even lined with poles, 

 forming a clear passage free of obstructions. In this case the 

 passage is broad at the top and narrows downstream. This 

 causes the timber to travel very rapidly, so that it becomes 

 necessary to check the speed at the point where the timbered 

 passage ends. To eff'ect this the poles forming the frame at 

 the end section are raised a little so as to let the water through 

 between the poles, thereby causing the floating timber to scrape 

 along the bottom. A similar system is adopted in the 

 Carpathians. Here it is a case of rafts with men aboard. The 

 passages sometimes turn, and the men are armed with poles to 

 fend the rafts off the sides. They are also shod with spiked 

 shoes, since it is a very slippery business. The passage generally 

 ends in a deep pool, into which, of course, the raft would plunge 

 headlong were not precautions taken. These consist in hingeing 

 to the last section of the timbers of the passage a platform of 

 poles floating at its other end on the surface of the pool, so that 

 the plunge of the raft is checked. Arrived at its destination, 

 the timber is worked up by the most complete system of sawmills 

 and factories, of which the development is something extra- 

 ordinary. It is said that one has but to look at a catalogue 

 and make one's choice of the pattern, when they will immediately 

 deliver to you a timber cottage complete, which has only to be 

 pieced together. 



In 1906, the statistics show that Norway exported 71,624,156 

 cubic feet of wood, round or otherwise, of which a quarter was 

 planed: 505,628 tons of pulp : 3627 tons of matches; and paper 

 worth ;^92o,ooo. Great Britain takes more than two-thirds of all 

 this. Then come Belgium, France, Australia, Holland, Germany 

 and Denmark. Can the Norwegian forests, in spite of the praise- 

 worthy eff^orts at reboisement now being made, stand such a 

 drain as this? One is inclined to think that one of the most 

 important steps for Norwegians to take would be to grow their 



