THE PINE. 47 



not confined to Europe, Evelyn, on the authority 

 of Le Comte, says, that the timber-merchants of 

 China transport immense trees or floats, upon which 

 they build huts and little cottages, where they live 

 with their families. 



The following passage from Planche's " Descent 

 of the Danube," gives a description of the method of 

 floating timber on a branch of that river ; and the 

 practice appears to be common in Germany : — 



" At the month of the Erlaf, is a Rechen, or Grate, 

 where the wood collects that is floated down this 

 stream from the forests in the neighbourhood of 

 Maria-Zell, in the Steyermark, near which it takes its 

 rise. It is customary in Germany to place one of 

 these gratings at the mouth of any tributary stream, 

 or in the bed of any river where a line of demarcation 

 is drawn naturally or artificially between two king- 

 doms, two provinces, or even two parishes ; so that 

 the branches and trunks of trees blown down by high 

 winds, and swept away by inundations into the cur- 

 rent, should not be carried beyond the frontiers, or 

 boundaries, of the state or property to which they 

 belong, and which derives from them no inconsider- 

 able portion of its revenue. 



" The timber, also, regularly felled by the wood- 

 cutters, is thrown thus carelessly on the mountain- 

 streams of Germany, and floats down to the Rechen 

 or Grate, where it is aft;erwards collected by its 

 owners, who are thus saved the trouble and expense 

 of land carriage ; and the drifting property is pro- 

 tected from plunder by the severity of the laws re- 

 lating to it." 



In many parts even of Europe, the timber of pine 

 forests is useless for purposes of commerce, from their 

 inaccessible situations, and the consequent difficulty 

 of transport. The rugged flanks and deep gorges of 

 Mount Pilatus, in Switzerland, for instance, had been 



