FOREST EXPLOITATION. 197 



and only built for the one voyage down to the Black Sea, 

 where they are taken to pieces and sold. I had an oppor- 

 tunity of seeing both of these kinds of lighters built last 

 winter. It was a queer sight to see three such Berliners 

 building, each large enough to hold about 120 standards. 

 There can be no doubt that in like manner the men-of- 

 war were built some hundreds of years ago, when many 

 battles were fought here between the Russians and the 

 wild tribes from the east and south of Russia. The 

 boards used were 5 to 6 inches thick, 15 to 20 inches 

 wide, 50 to 60 feet long, hand-sawn out of one block of 

 the finest trees found in the woods. Thousands of the 

 most beautiful oaks were cut down and made into light- 

 ers, each being equal in value to that of a nice sized 

 schooner. Still more wonderful was the building of the 

 barque, which is a sort of Noah's Ark as to size. How 

 they got this enormous structure to hold together and to 

 keep tight is not easy to understand, more especially as it 

 was built to pass the cataracts between Kremenchuek 

 and Kherson. Most of the timber is being sent down to 

 Kherson, Nikolaiev, and Odessa; a small part of it is 

 sold on the way at Kiev and some other places. In 

 Kherson are large sawmills, where many of the logs are 

 transformed into deals and boards; others are shipped 

 from Nikolaiev and Odessa in the form of square timber. 



' There are some sawmills in this part of Russia also, 

 but they are as old-fashioned as everything else, where 

 some thousands of logs yearly are sawn into large boards, 

 mostly all of one size, and sold at so much a piece at 

 Kiev. 



' In this part of Russia there exists a decided feeling 

 against foreigners ; and with the dim idea they have of 

 right and wrong, they consider it their duty to persecute 

 strangers as much as lies in their power. 



' In the end of 1882 a wood- exporting firm in Finland 

 made an agreement with a Count v. M., in St. Peters 

 burg, who was the owner of a large estate with extensive 

 forests in this neighbourhood, to take out the value of the 



