THE BLACK FOREST.

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poor population. The greater portion of thc latter are em- ployed as woodmen, burners of charcoal, and raftmen. Much of the wood is cut to logs and either consumed in thc ma- nufactorics of the Black Forest, as fuel, or carricd down to thc plains, as far as Basle and Strassburg. Another portion of the giants of the forest is brought down to the saw-inills, of vvhich every valley possesses some, and cut to Boards. By far the greater mass however is formed iuto rafts and transported down the mountain streanis to the Rhine, werc it is collected to those enormous masses, the tra- vellcr on this river so often meets witli. The stems destined for this use are called Holländerhoh (Holland wood); they must have at least thc required length of 72 feet, by 16 inches in diameter at thc fag-end.

There is no difficulty in the transport of timber growing on the borders of a navigable river, but it is a different thing when it grows at the distance of many miles from any stream capable of floating a log. This obstacle is overcome by means of slides (called Riesen), semicircular throughs, three feet in width, formed of six or eight fir- trees, placed side by side ? and smoothed by Stripping off the bark, and extending sometimes to a great distance. They are constructed so as to prescrvc a gradual dcsccnt, and are not ahvays straight, but sometimes made to curve round the shoulders of the mountains. The Black Forest is cverywhere traversed by tliese eontrivances, which form, in fact, a rüde railroad for the timber. Let the traveller take lieed in passing tliese slides after snow or rain bas fallen. The wood-cutter waits for such favourable oppor- tunities, when the ground is slippery and thc rivers are high, to launcli fortli the timber which has been cut many wceks before. The logs descend witli the rapidity of an arrow, and it would be certain destruction to encounter