34 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
ing of the: ice they are pushed into the:.current,'and. the 
contributions of many affluents find their way to the river, 
which may at the time be covered with the floating masses, 
‘which become more or less compactly interlaced, till some 
) projecting rock in the bank or the river bed arresting 
some, others are impeded and stopped in their course, and 
ultimately many thousands, it may be, are stopped, and 
piled up in a confused heap. It is perilous work to break 
up the piled mass, and set the logs afloat upon the stream 
again. Elsewhere ‘the men employed go about balancing 
themselves on detached logs in the middle of the stream, 
pushing on each log by means of a boat-hook, till at last 
the mass-of logs hanging together begins to be disturbed 
and shake, and then comes the struggle for the men to 
regain the shore. The skill which the men display. in dis- 
entangling the logs, the agility with which they run about 
‘and maintain their balance on the floating logs, as well as 
on those which are fixed, the intelligence which they apply 
to the separation and setting afloat again of all those 
interlaced logs, and, in fine, the courage with which they 
oface all these perils, are all of them worthy -of admiration.’ 
The statement is cited from a report by Dr. Brock, a dis- 
‘tinguished Norwegian ‘statistician. 
The author of a large work entitled: Frost and Fire, to 
- which I am indebted for the account: of logs performing ithe 
“Halling dance below: the -waterfall on the Torristal river, 
‘some distance above Christiansand, tells that after the logs 
-have been launched ‘many get waterlogged and sink ; and 
these may be seen strewed in hundreds ‘upon the bottom, 
far down in clear. green lakes,’-and he-goes on to say :— 
‘Many get: stranded on the mountain gorges, and span 
the torrent like bridges; others get.planted like masts 
‘amongst the boulders ; others sail into quiet bays, and rest 
upon soft mud. 
‘ But in spring, when the floods are up, another class of 
woodmen follow the logs and drive on the lingerers. The 
launch the bridges, and masts, and stranded rafts, help 
them through the lakes; and push them into the:stream ; 
