DETERIORATION IN QUALITY. 4-25 



steep and combined with chutes, the loss may attain 15 to 

 20 per cent, and more. In transport on sledges and carts 

 there is loss only when part of the wood is dragged behind 

 the sledge as a brake, and even then the loss seldom exceeds 

 J per cent. Where sawmill butts are slid on the ground, or 

 thrown down-hill, as is sometimes unavoidable, greater friction 

 and loss ensues, which is at least 10 per cent. The loss in 

 floating varies between 2 and 15 per cent, of the volume 

 launched. Since frequently very different modes of transport 

 are combined, as in the Ramsau forest-range, it is difficult to 

 assign the amount of loss to any one of them in particular, 

 but on the whole it may be admitted fairly that in land and 

 water transport there is 6 per cent, of loss, of which 4 per cent, 

 is in land-transport, and 2 per cent, by water. According 

 to old observations made at the salt springs of Berchtesgaden, 

 the loss in land-transport and floating to the timber-depot 

 there was 5 per cent, from the Bischofswies, 8 per cent, 

 from the Hintersee, Ramsau and Schwappach, 20 per cent, 

 from the Konigsee, and 30 per cent, from the Both, a fall 

 over a steep incline 600 meters (1,950 feet) high. At present, 

 in all these districts, great improvement has been effected by 

 constructing good sledge-roads in all directions. 



5. Deterioration in Quality of the Wood. 



The deterioration in the quality of wood during transport 

 consists in external and internal damage. 



The former kind of damage may be recognised as soon as 

 the wood has reached its destination by a brush-like loosening 

 of its fibres at either end, in the case of both butts and fire- 

 wood billets. To this may be often added a certain number 

 of radial cracks. 



The internal damage is of much greater importance, affect- 

 ing as it does the soundness of the wood ; land-transport 

 cannot have any influence in this respect, but floating is 

 held to be a cause of decay, which in the case of sawmill 

 butts is often considerable. Provided the floating is effected 

 properly, it could not be solely responsible for this, sup- 

 posing that it were always possible to take the necessary 

 precautions. But frequently this cannot be ensured, and 



