TO HOHENBURG AND KREUTH. 181 



" Have you much to do iu the forest in winter ?" T 

 asked. 



" Yes," he said, " when there's snow, and it is hard 

 enough to bear, we bring down the wood that we cut 

 in the preceding months, which it would be impossi- 

 ble to do at any other time ; for there are no roads up 

 here, and the paths are so stony that no cart could 

 move over them. But as soon as we can make a Bahn 

 (a smooth hard surface on the snow) we load the wood 

 on sledges, and so bring it down the mountain." 



" J Tis hard work, is it not ?" I asked. 



" Ay, and dangerous too," he said : " such a load of 

 wood is heavy, and on the smooth snow comes down 

 with a rush : if you slip or fall, or cannot stop your- 

 self, and the sledge goes over your leg, it is broken in 

 a moment : some accidents are always happening." 



" But in summer it must be a right pleasant life, out 

 in the forest all day long, and living on the mountain. 

 You stay up there the whole week, do you not ?" 



" Pleasant enough it is," he said, " but 'tis hard work ; 

 and in felling the trees, seldom a summer passes with- 

 out one or other of us being hurt, — a foot or an arm 

 crushed by the stems as they fall, or something of the 

 sort." 



" And how are you paid ?" I asked. 



" That depends : sometimes thirty-six, sometimes forty- 

 two kreutzers a-day* But 'tis a long day from four 



they moreover manage matters very skilfully when crossing such beds 

 not yet hardened by frost. They spread their hoofs as far apart as pos- 

 sible, thus providing themselves for the nonce with a pair of natural 

 snow-shoes ; they often too will bend back their haunches so much 

 that the whole of the hind legs up to the knee rests flat on the snow. 



* Is. or Is. 2d. a day. But at present (1851) the six-pound loaf of 

 excellent bread costs 24 kreutzers, or Sd. English. In the spring it was 

 so low as 4c?., and for a short time even it cost 12 kreutzers, or Z%d. 



