198 FORESTRY IN LITHUANIA. 



woods for joint account. The forests contained about a 

 million of trees, ripe for cutting, and these were to be 

 made into money in as short a time as possible. Plans 

 were made ; a sawmill with six frames, and a planing-mill 

 were to be built, and 80,000 trees were ordered to be 

 felled the first year. The trees were felled, the sawmill 

 was built, workmen were collected from Sweden, Finland, 

 and Riga. Last summer the sawmill was so far ready 

 that sawing began, when the firm in Finland unexpect- 

 edly fell into difficulties. Money was not sent to pay the 

 workmen. Some time after, the firm in Finland became 

 bankrupt, and the owner left for America. The Count v. 

 M. stopped payment in the real sense of the word, and 

 there the poor workmen were left with their wives and 

 children in utter want of money, in an exceedingly 

 dangerous climate, where fever and illness came more 

 regularly than the daily bread, without means to buy 

 medicine, and without a medical man to attend them. 

 Death visited them through typhus, and they had to bury 

 their dead themselves. 



' Te detail the intrigues, the unfulfilled promises, and 

 the mean behaviour of the Russians against these poor 

 people, would be of no use. Suffice it to say, that by 

 their common efforts they got over the first part of the 

 winter, arid through the help of the Swedish Ambassador, 

 and the Finnish authorities in St. Petersburg, they have 

 been sent home to their respective countries. The busi- 

 ness is entirely wound up, and the very fine sawmill, with 

 its first-rate machinery and every new improvement, is 

 waiting for a new owner, who may have sufficient means 

 to make himself independent of Russian intrigues, and be 

 able to continue a business which began hopefully a little 

 more than a year ago.' 



Kherson, the capital of the government of that name, 

 was founded in 1.778, and soon became a port for vessels 

 from all countries of Europe. It is 57 miles from the 

 Black Sea, and 92 E.N.E. from Odessa, on the right bank 



