FORESTS. 49 



thousands of trees,, and now and then a fire rages in the 

 summer, and sweeps down many acres. I never had the 

 luck to see a real good " bush fire " in Sweden. In the 

 Norrland forests, I believe, these fires rage more or less 

 during the whole summer in some part or other of the 

 forests. 



Bishop Agardth so graphically describes the timber 

 working in these northern forests, that I make no apology 

 for inserting an extract here : 



" As soon as the ground becomes frozen in the autumn, 

 all the men living in a forest district betake themselves to 

 the woods,. armed with their axes and skeder, and provided 

 with meal, herrings, cheese, horses, sledges, and fodder. 

 They have already dug some holes in the ground, about 

 two feet deep, over which they have built a cover with an 

 opening for the smoke. This sort of hut is called a kuja, 

 and here the woodmen live through the winter, and seek 

 their homes only on a Sunday. Every morning they go out 

 into the woods to fell the timber, and drive it into heaps 

 called ' tunnar.' As soon as the snow has become set, and 

 the ice on the lakes bears, they draw the timber from the 

 forest to the nearest draught of water, or to some place 

 with a high perpendicular bank, called a ' lop/ down which 

 they shoot the logs upon the ice. Among these workmen 

 are a better class called timber markers, who superintend 

 the whole work, and set the owners' names upon each log. 

 The horses stand, through the whole winter, by the side 

 of the huts without any shelter, nor do they appear in the 

 least to mind it. All brandy and quarrelling among the 

 men is strictly forbidden." 



The felling of the trees appears to be conducted with 

 great waste. The workmen set about their work very 

 carelessly. They never use a saw, always an axe. They never 

 bend their backs to their work, but stand nearly upright, and 

 consequently cut down the tree about four feet from the 

 root, on which account the most valuable part of the timber, 

 that is to say, the lowest part of the stem, is left in the 

 ground and altogether lost. 



