NOTES ON A VISIT TO SWITZERLAND AND GERMANY. 307 
were found to be suffering from red-rot. These were cut, and 
since then the ground has covered itself naturally with a crop of 
a great many species of hardwoods, which could not be got to 
take root on it in its natural state, thus showing how soil may be 
improved by the growth of any kind of timber which can be got 
to grow upon it. 
On the 12th of June I visited the spruce wood, where 
experiments in different degrees of thinning had been carried on 
for five years. It was divided into sections A, B, C, D. The 
least thinning was done in section A and the most in section D, 
and it was found, so far, that the greatest increase was obtained 
in section C, which was thinned in a medium way. In section 
D the suppressed and dominated and some dominating trees 
were taken out. Every five years the crop on these experi- 
mental areas is measured at the height of 4 ft. 3 ins., and is 
marked by red lines. All these measurements are made by the 
Swiss branch of the National Forest Society. The height, 
the basal area, the volume, the number of trees on the area 
and their diameter are all recorded by this Society for experi- 
mental purposes. Sixty per cent. of the revenue of the 
forest is derived from firewood, and 4o per cent. from matured 
timber. 
On the 13th June Herr Tuchschmid kindly proposed to conduct 
us to the summit of the Rigi, and we left Sihlwald between 
4 and 5 a.M., on a beautiful morning, and walked across the 
forest to the railway station at Thalwil, whence we took train 
for Arth-Goldau in the first instance. While waiting our train 
at Thalwil, it was interesting to notice on the north-going 
train from Italy, which passed through at the time, a large 
number of chickens which were being conveyed to Germany to 
be fed by the German peasants, and marketed in that country. 
From Thalwil the train skirted for a considerable distance the 
shores of the Lake of Zurich, through beautiful country, producing 
chiefly grapes and grass, until it branched off towards Arth- 
Goldau, the terminus of the ordinary railway line, and also the 
terminus of the Arth-Rigi railway. The station is situated on 
the site of the Goldau landslip, which occurred on znd September 
1806. This terrible landslip descended from the summit of the 
Rosberg, and buried four villages with four hundred and fifty- 
seven of their inhabitants; and although time has covered the 
fragments of the rock with moss and other vegetation, the track 
