160 MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS. 



which form, in fact, the inclined plane of a rude railroad for the timber. Let 

 the traveller take heed in passing these slides after snow or rain has fallen. 

 The wood-cutter waits for such favourable opportunities, when the ground 

 is slippery, and the rivers are high, to launch forth the timber which has 

 been cut many weeks before. The logs descend with the rapidity of an ar- 

 row, and it would be certain destruction to encounter one in its course ; so 

 great is the force they acquire in their descent, that if by chance a log strikes 

 against any impediment in the sides of the slide, it is tossed out by the shock, 

 and either snapped in two like wax, or shivered to splinters. The streams 

 which traverse a forest-district are often so shallow, and so much impeded by 

 rocks, that even after rain they would be insufficient to carry the wood. In 

 such cases a strong dam is built across the stream, at a point where its chan- 

 nel is narrowest, usually at the mouth of a gorge ; and the waters are pent 

 up by sluice-gates until they have risen so as to form an artificial lake. In 

 this sheet of water the logs are collected from the surrounding forests. At 

 a given signal the sluice-gates are opened, and the pent up waters force their 

 way down the valley, bearing along the wood with which they are freighted, 

 until they reach a larger stream capable of floating it without artificial aid. 

 A few only of the finest trunks are formed into rafts, and transported down 

 the Danube into the Black Sea, or into the Adriatic, for ship-building. The 

 greater part of the wood is consumed in the country where it grows for fuel> 

 for supplying the salt-pans and mines, or it is converted into charcoal for the 

 smelting and forging of iron. But it constantly happens that a ridge of high 

 mountains intervenes between the forests and the salt-works and furnaces ; 

 and that the timber grows on the opposite side of the hills, where the stream 

 flows in a contrary direction to the point where it is wanted. Under such 

 circumstances the trees, instead of being thrown down from the height, must 

 be carried up the ascent, which is, of course, much more difficult. The 

 transport is then effected by means of a vast inclined plane, extending from 

 the bottom of the valley to the siunmit of the nearest cliflf or height over- 

 hanging it. A number of waggons are constructed to run up and down it, 

 in a sort of rail-road. AVhen loaded they are attached by ropes to a species 

 of windlass communicating with a water-wheel, which is put in motion by 

 turning on it the stream of a mountain torrent. By this means they are 

 raised to the top of a precipice many hundred feet high, and are then trans- 

 ported down the opposite side in the usual manner. The business of the 

 woodman affords occupation for a great number of persons. They set out 

 early in spring in gangs, and repair to the spot where the wood is most abun- 

 dant and of the finest growth ; they build themselves rude huts of logs and 

 branches, and begin lustily to ply the axe. The trees are then sorted into 

 stems fit for masts or ship-building, which is merely lopped, and into wood fit 

 for fuel, which is cut into logs, split, and dried; the whole is then heaped up 

 in vast stacks. As soo.i as the winter has fairly set in, and the snow has 

 fallen deep, so as to fill up the hollows in the mountains, the wood-cutter 

 puts the cramp-irons upon his feet, and, either by the aid of oxen or upon a 

 hand-sledge, conveys the wood to the borders of some neighbouring precipice, 

 or to the side of one of the slides above mentioned. The snow is partially 

 removed from the trough of the slides, and a few logs are thrown down to 

 smooth it and make the passage clear. Water is also poured down it, which 

 speedily freezes and covers it w ith a sheet of ice. This serves to diminish 



