26 



may be, to a great extent, composed of the lesser branches left on the 

 tree when placed in the slide. 



Brands or marks may be seen upon some logs. These are, I pre- 

 sume, the marks of the woodcutter or the contractor, made to enable 

 each one to claim his own property should logs belonging to different 

 proprietors get mixed together. 



The logs are carried down by the river, and if the river fall into a lake, 

 they are at the embouchure of the river collected and formed into a 

 raft ; and such rafts are sometimes towed by a little steamer across the 

 lake to its outlet If the stream flowing thence be smooth, they may 

 be floated further as a raft ; if it proceed over waterfalls in its course, 

 the logs are unchained and allowed to float down apart, to be reformed 

 into a raft below these, if circumstances allow of this. Notwithstanding 

 the care which maybe taken, many logs are stranded on the banks of 

 the lakes and rivers. The logs are cut into size and shape for the foreign 

 market by saw-mills near the coast, which are driven by water-power. 



Saw-mills of the simplest structure, consisting only of a water- 

 wheel and a circular saw, fixed apparently on the same axle, are 

 common appendages to farmhouses in the country. They are em- 

 ployed in cutting up the firewood required for the family and their 

 retainers. 



By Forrester it is mentioned that in some cases two years have been 

 occupied in the transport to the sea of timber cut in the upper 

 mountains. From this some idea may be formed of the difficulties 

 which have to be overcome, and which are overcome, by the indomitable 

 industry of the people. 



The forests consist almost entirely of the Norway spruce fir (Abies 

 communis) ; and in some parts of the country tar is manufactured. 



