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not tend to devastate the woods. " Look," said he in reply, " there, 

 are young trees growing in every nook and corner down to the water's 

 edge on both sides of the river, throughout the whole course of our 

 voyage. And so is it for miles inland. As fast as we fell others grow." 

 I called his attention to the small size of the logs, and told him of what 

 was being done in Sweden and elsewhere for the conservation and 

 improvement of forests ; but he only laughed, as if that were a thing 

 altogether unnecessary here, and one which it would be ridiculous to 

 propose, and he called my attention to the floats of timber we were 

 constantly passing. 



At one mill at Christiansand it is said 70,000 trees are thus floated 

 down and sawn up every year, and there are several other saw-mills in 

 the town. At Vigelund, about ten miles above the town on the Torris- 

 tal river, a little way above the rapids of the river to which the 

 steamer goes, there is another saw-mill. At the fall on which this mill 

 stands may be seen what I shall hereafter have occasion to refer 

 to as characteristic of the water transport of timber trees in Norway. 

 The author of a volume entitled "Frost and Fire," describing the 

 passage of this fall by trees, says, "At every moment some new arrival 

 comes sailing down the rapids, pitches over the fall, and dives into a 

 foaming ground pool, where hundreds of other logs are revolving and 

 whirling about each other in creamy froth. The new comer first takes 

 a header, and dives into some unknown depth, but presently he shoots up 

 in the midst of the pool, rolls over and over, and shakes himself till he 

 finds his 4 level, and then he joins the dance. There is first a slow 

 sober glissade eastward across the stream to a rock which bears the 

 mark of many a hard blow. There is a shuffle, a concussion and a 

 retreat, followed by a pirouette sunwise, and a sidelong sweep north- 

 wards up stream towards the fall. Then comes a vehement whirling 

 over and over, or if a tree gets his head under the fall, there is a 

 somersault, like a performance in the Hailing dance. That is followed 

 by a rush sideways and westward, when there is a long fit of setting to 

 partners under the lee of a big rock ; then comes a simultaneous rush 

 southwards, towards the rapid which leads to the sea, and some logs " 

 escape and depart, but the rest appear to be seized with some freak, 

 and away they all slide eastwards again across the stream to have 

 another bout with the old battered pudding-stone rock below the saw- 

 mill : and so for hours and days logs whirl one way, in this case against 

 the sun, below the fall, and they dash against the rounded walls of 

 the pool. Such is the effect of these concussions that above the fall it 

 has been found necessary to protect the rock against floating bodies so 

 as to preserve the way of the stream. It threatened to alter its course 

 and leave the mill dry, for the rock was wearing rapidly. Lower down, 



