THE FIB TRIBE. 363 



of it, to facilitate the fixing of the rope by which the 

 horses are to drag the trunk along ; and a hole is made in 

 the other end to receive a handspike to st( er the log over 

 the many obstacles that lie in its way. Many of these 

 trees are seventy feet in length, and of proportionate 

 diameter ; and they are drawn by from four to nine horses 

 each, yoked in a straight line one before another, since the 

 intricate narrow paths in the woods will not permit any 

 other arrangement. One man mounts upon the leading 

 horse, another upon the middle one, while others support 

 and guide with handspikes the large and distant end of 

 the tree, to raise it over the elevations of snow and make 

 it glide smoothly along. The conveyance of these large 

 trees, the long line of horses, and the number of peasants 

 accompanying them through the forest, present a very pic- 

 turesque appearance. In many cases the trees are brought 

 nearly a thousand miles before they are delivered to the 

 merchant; and they generally remain under his care till 

 another winter, to be shaped and fitted for exportation in 

 such a manner as to take up as little room as possible on 

 shipboard ; so that this timber does not reach the foreign 

 consumer till two years after it has been cut down. When 

 the trees are delivered to the merchant, they are carefully 

 examined to ascertain their soundness ; and for this pur- 

 pose a hatchet is struck several times against them, the 

 emitted sound affording the means of estimating the 

 soundness of the tree ; those which are defective constitute 

 about one-tenth of the whole. The trees are not conveyed 

 from the forests the whole way to St. Petersburg by horse?, 

 but only to the margin of some stream or lake, from whence 

 they may be floated down to the capital. 



' ' The most striking examples of the floating of timber 

 by rafts are presented on the Danube and Rhine. The 

 immense forests of southern and western Germany are in 

 most cases within reach of some stream or other which 

 flows into the Rhine, the Danube, the Rhone, or one of 

 the other large rivers ; and in such cases the logs of timber, 



