TREES OF AMERICA. 223 



the large cities are near the places where 

 these rivers empty themselves into the ocean : 

 the trees are generally cut down in winter, 

 and dragged to the nearest river, where they 

 are all fastened together upon the ice, and made 

 into rafts ; in the spring, when the ice melts, 

 these rafts float down the rivers until they 

 come to the city where they are to be sold, or 

 sawed up; and that is the way they are 

 carried. Sometimes there are several thou- 

 sand trees fastened together in one raft, when 

 the river is wide enough. 



" But before we go any further, I must tell 

 you of a very wonderful contrivance that was 

 made by an ingenious man once in Switzer- 

 land, to convey trees into the Lake of Lucerne. 

 You must know that in Switzerland there is 

 a mountain called Mount Pilatus, which is 

 covered with fine large pine-trees : the trees 

 were valuable, but as the top of the mountain 

 was nearly nine miles from the lake, the ex- 

 pense and trouble of carrying the logs down 

 to the water were too great, and so the fine 

 trees were perfectly useless. At last the man 

 that I told you of, whose name was Rupp, 

 undertook to make a vast trough extending 

 from the top of the mountain down to the 



