40 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
with the extent of these forests only by knowing the num- 
ber of desatins which they cover, has no idea of what that 
extent is. To obtain this one must travel through them— 
travelling continuously through forests for five hundred 
versts ; and he must experience personally the depressing 
influence produced by the forests and forest-covered moun- 
tains of this forest region to enable him even partially to 
comprehend what is implied in the easily pronounced 
statement about so many millions of desatins. Such 
numerical statements are required for the production of a 
national tax, or estimate and description of what fellings 
should be made to secure a sustained production of wood, 
and the charge to be made for trees; and the latter is a 
matter which is not so easy of accomplishment as to many at 
first sight it may appear to be. Those who are in the trade 
do not make known what is the cost of preparing the timber 
for the market, or the prices obtained by them, being 
afraid of the charge to them being raised. If there be 
made but a simple allusion to the subject, they begin to 
complain that they are carrying on their operations at a 
loss, and that the demand for timber is diminishing from 
year to year. And to arrive at a knowledge of the truth, 
the forest officials must solve the problem for themselves, 
with such data as they have at command. . . . .. 
‘At a distance of ninety versts, or sixty miles, from 
Petrozavodsk, is the village of Leejma, where there is a 
saw-mill of considerable magnitude, occupied also at the 
present time by M. Baelaeff. It is erected on the river 
Leejma, and has two water-wheels and four frames of saws, 
two for each water-wheel. It works without intermission 
day and night, and can cut up in the course of the year 
60,000 logs; but, in consequence of hindering circumstances, 
it cuts up only some 45,000, These are pine logs of the 
length of twenty-two feet, and eight verschocks or fourteen 
inches thick at the upper extremity, The boards most in 
demand in the market are twenty-two feet long and three 
inches thick, which are known as 2}-in. boards; and 
besides these there are what are called inch boards, 
