40 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 



with the extent of these forests only by knowing the num- 

 ber of desatins which they cover, has no idea of what that 

 extent is. To obtain this one must travel through them 

 travelling continuously through forests for five hundred 

 versts ; and he must experience personally the depressing 

 influence produced by the forests and forest-covered moun- 

 tains of this forest region to enable him even partially to 

 comprehend what is implied in the easily pronounced 

 statement about so many millions of desatins. Such 

 numerical statements are required for the production of a 

 national tax, or estimate and description of what fellings 

 should be made to secure a sustained production of wood, 

 and the charge to be made for trees ; and the latter is a 

 matter which is not so easy of accomplishment as to many at 

 first sight it may appear to be. Those who are in the trade 

 do not make known what is the cost of preparing the timber 

 for the market, or the prices obtained by them, being 

 afraid of the charge to them being raised. If there be 

 made but a simple allusion to the subject, they begin to 

 complain that they are carrying on their operations at a 

 loss, and that the demand for timber is diminishing from 

 year to year. And to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, 

 the forest officials must solve the problem for themselves, 



with such data as they have at command 



1 At a distance of ninety versts, or sixty miles, from 

 Petrozavodsk, is the village of Leejma, where there is a 

 saw-mill of considerable magnitude, occupied also at the 

 present time by M. Baelaeff. It is erected on the river 

 Leejma, and has two water-wheels and four frames of saws, 

 two for each water-wheel. It works without intermission 

 day and night, and can cut up in the course of the year 

 60,000 logs; but, in consequence of hindering circumstances, 

 it cuts up only some 45,000, These are pine logs of the 

 length of twenty-two feet, and eight verschocks or fourteen 

 inches thick at the upper extremity, The boards most in 

 demand in the market are twenty-two feet long and three 

 inches thick, which are known as 2 J-in. boards ; and 

 besides these there are what are called inch boards, 



