79 



There are about 72,000 acres, in charge of eighteen foresters and over-foresters, who 

 of course have many subordinates. The method employed is the slow felling and conti- 

 nual reproduction before mentioned, a block being after forty years in clearing before all 

 the old are replaced by new trees. Attention and intelligence are necessary, for the seed 

 will not grow nor the seedlings flourish without enough light, and the forest officer must 

 watch that they get it ; and again much greater care is needed in felling and hauling 

 away when the trees are surrounded by lofty saplings and young trees than when the 

 seedlings of the next crop are not more than a foot or two high. In this the axe-men 

 of the Black Forest are adepts, and the damage very slight to what it would be in other 

 hands. 



It may be useful to describe their manner of bringing timber down the rivers. 

 It cannot here be done when the stream is in flood ; in fact, the less water in it the 

 better so long as sufficient is stored up above to float the rafts. Reservoirs are made, 

 and the water poured into the river bed when the raft is ready. The streams are often 

 small, of only fifteen or twenty feet in width, and have to be prepared for floating, by 

 being cleared of any large rocks or boulders, and " sleepered," if we may use the expres- 

 sion, by pieces of wood firmly fixed in the bed of the stream every few yards. These 

 prevent the formation of holes in the bed, and serve for the raft to slide on if it touches 

 the bottom. The first impression of the Indian commissioner, when he saw the float, 

 composed of stems from twenty to sixty feet in length tied together with withes at the 

 ends, and lying zigzag in the bed of a mountain stream, up and down which they extended 

 sixteen hundred feet, was that it was simply impossible they ever could be floated down 

 the stream, with all its windings, and over the locks and rooks which occurred pretty 

 frequently. It contained 880 stems, eight or ten of which abreast formed as it were a 

 link in the raft. There were thirty links, not fastened laterally, but only at both ends 

 to the next link. The breadth is greatest at about two-thirds from the prow, which is 

 narrow, and consist of only three stems abreast, with in front of all a piece formed of 

 old wood and raised out of water like the bow of a whale-boat, so as to lead the raft, and 

 the largest and heaviest stems placed in the broadest part and towards the stern or 

 hinder part, which does not taper at all. There are two or three breaks, by which the 

 speed is slacked or the raft stopped if needed. When all is ready, the water from above is 

 let loose, and the raft, perhaps not now lying in more than a foot of water, begins to float 

 a little, but is not let go till two-thirds of the water is passed, as it is a curious fact that 

 when let go, if there is much descent, it travels faster than the water, and has to be 

 stopped to let the water get ahead again. The raft has eight or ten men and boys, one or 

 two of whom stand by the master at the chief break, on which the safety of all depends. 



When let go it is exceedingly curious to see the forward part dart ofi" at the rate of 

 five miles an hour, and the several links which have been lying zigzag and perhaps high 

 and dry uncoil themselves and follow in its wake till the whole dashes along at great 

 speed and apparently uncontrolled. Accidents' are rare, as they are well trained (lads of 

 six or eight can be seen going down in miniature floats) ; but for one not accustomed to it, 

 it is nearly impossible to stay on the raft at all, as it literally springs out of water on 

 touching a rock, dashes round a rapid turn, or jumps a weir with a fall of several feet. 

 Forty or fifty miles can be got over in a day if stoppages to let the water ahead are not 

 too frequent or the stream is not swollen by rains. 



