RAFTING. 



413 



purpose coniferous wood always is used, and is distributed 

 among the oakwood in the raft-sections, so that they may be 

 weighted as uniformly as possible. 



Poles are used for fixing the sections, and are fastened to 

 the logs with iron nails. In countries where the necessary 

 coniferous wood is scarce, old wine-casks (on the river Moselle) 

 are used to buoy up the rafts. It should also be noted that 

 some oakwood will float well, and in that case rafts may be 

 made-up entirely of light oakwood, as, for instance, well- 

 seasoned Spessart oak. 



(b) Rafts of Sawn Timber. Of sawn timber, it is chiefly 

 boards, planks and battens that are transported in rafts. 

 [In India, rafts are made-up 

 of logs, railway- sleepers and r 

 other scantling, and bam- 

 boos. Tr.] Boards are 

 fastened together in various 

 ways in different countries, L_ 

 one of the commonest 



Fig. 276. 1 lank raft-section. 



methods being as follows : 



Ten to fifteen boards are fastened together on a bank of the 

 stream, and six or eight* such bundles of boards so placed that 

 the two outer bundles (a a) project beyond the others (Fig. 276), 



n n 



Fig. 277. " Vertical" section of Fig. 27C>. 



and besides, the lowest board of each bundle projects about 

 40 centimeters (15 inches) beyond the other boards. This is 

 done, so that in making-up a raft out of the sections the latter 

 may dovetail into one another. The six or eight bundles are 

 now fastened together by means of two or more pairs of poles, 



* These numbers are generally chosen, so that each raft-section may contain 

 ]<><, 120, or ].">(.) boards : 120 boards usually form a "standard. 1 ' 



