50 FORESTRY OF NORWAY. 



foot of each fall a perfect barrier of pines was formed, to 

 which many were added while we stood witnessing the 

 struggle. Some, eddying in the whirlpools, seemed des- 

 tined never to get free ; one almost wondered how any 

 escaped: numbers were broken up, and some never 

 recovered. The whole shore below the falls was strewed 

 with the giant bulk, disjecta membra, of these spoils of the 

 forest, thus arrested in their progress to the sea. 



' Felled and sledged to the nearest stream d uring the 

 winter, no sooner is its frozen channel set free by the 

 returning spring, and swelled by the influx from the dis- 

 solving snow, than the timber, thus left to its fate, begins 

 its long journey Borne down by the foaming torrents 

 which lash the base of its native hills, far in the interior ; 

 hurried over rapids ; taking in its onward course along the 

 shores of winding lakes, or slowly dropping down in the 

 quiet current of broad rivers, the accumulated mass is 

 brought up at last by a strong boom placed across the 

 stream, where it discharges itself into navigable waters. 

 It is then sorted, appropriated by the merchants to whom 

 it is consigned, and shipped for foreign ports. One would 

 wonder how it ever reached the place of its destination, 

 or how, of the numerous owners, each could recognise his 

 own. But I was given to understand that the logs are 

 branded with the owner's mark before they are committed 

 to the stream ; and I observed that during their passage 

 down the lakes they were collected into immense rafts, 

 curiously framed and pinned together ; but so unwieldy 

 and unmanageable are the masses, that but little can be 

 done in the way of navigation beyond fending them oft' 

 the shores and rocks, and keeping them in the current. 

 Some of the timber is said to be two years in finding its 

 way to the coast/ 



In accordance with this narrative is that already given 

 of what was seen at Vigelund, on the Torrisdal river, 

 flowing into the Fiord at Christiansand. 



To resume the narrative by Forester: 



