110 THE FOREST LANDS OF NORTHERN RUSSIA. 
limited distance from some stream, or in some locality 
whence they can easily be transported to some river or 
stream. In these cold sterile countries which cannot 
grow grain, timber trees grow to perfection ; and the long 
winter facilitates operations, as during that season snow 
covers the ground, and by the aid of sledges the peasant 
can convey the timber to the banks of the river over 
districts where no wheel can pass. When the snow melts 
the rivers rise, and the timber is thus floated down at 
small expense to the mills. Forests far away from rivers 
are not valuable, the expense of the carriage of timber 
being great. The value of a fir tree averages 3s, the cost 
of cutting is about 1s, the floating to St Petersburg will 
be about 1s 9d. The branches are used for firewood, and 
the bark is cleared away, buried, or burned. The supply 
has hitherto been maintained by the abundance of 
the timber in the woods; but latterly they have been 
going deeper and deeper into the forests, and further and 
further and further from the navigable streams ; and there 
can be no doubt that in course of years the supply must 
decrease unless certain restrictions are established. 
‘In our contract with the Government it is stipulated 
that the timber shall each year be cut only in the district 
pointed out by the forest officers. By this arrangement 
the forests are not destroyed, but thinned out periodically. 
With us large trees do not suit, as in them the centre is to 
some extent decayed. We generally cut down trees mea- 
suring from four feet to five feet in circumference, . 
‘The Company have two saw--mills on the Ponga and one 
on the Onga, both tributaries of the Onega,’ 
From another gentleman I received the following more 
detailed information in 1874 :— 
‘The Onega Wood Company have made a contract with 
the Russian Government to the effect that it has the right 
during the space of twenty years to fell not less than 60,000 
and not more than 200,000 trees in each year, The 
datcha (districts) in which the Company may cut their trees 
