TIMBER EXPORTS BY THE BALTIC. 251 



frontier, where it is conterminous with the Russian 

 province of Courland. 



At about the same distance along the coast, within this 

 province is Liban, destined it may be to be ere long, 

 through the increase and extension of railways in Russia, 

 the one great Russian commercial port on the Baltic. 



Meanwhile Riga, at the head of the sheltered 

 gulf to which it gives its name, and situated at the 

 mouth of the river Dwina, in Polish Dzwina, is the great 

 Russian port for the export of timber from the territory 

 traversed by that river, chiefly Lithuania. This river must 

 not be confounded with the Dwina in the northern govern- 

 ment of Archangel. 



One of my correspondents connected with the timber 

 trade in Riga wrote to me in answer to enquiries I had 

 addressed to him * As to the forests of the Baltic pro- 

 vinces, strictly speaking they are nearly all cut down, at 

 least the larger sized trees are, and those now obtained 

 have in many cases to be transported a distance of some 

 20 or 30 versts (14 or 20 miles), on axle or sledge. In 

 general the latter mode of conveyance is preferred, as it is 

 the cheaper of the two. From this you will perceive that 

 a good deal depends on the kind of winter we have, as 

 good sledge roads are desirable for the transport of timber 

 to the edge of the water, by which it is floated down in 

 spring at the breaking up of the ice. This department of 

 the trade, I may mention, is almost entirely in the hands 

 of the Israelites.' He goes on to say ' To give you some 

 idea of the extent of the timber trade in this place I may 

 mention that there are annually exported about 

 2J,000,000 of railway sleepers, and about 300,000 logs of 

 square timber, which are hewn in the forests, all the 

 chips and branches of which remain there to rot, and 

 make manure for the nexfc forest that grows in their place. 

 There is no attempt made to clean out such refuse, in fact 

 there is no fostering care whatever employed in such 

 things, it is entirely left to nature. Anything can be 

 made, such as squared timber, railway sleepers, &c., and it 



