8

WILDBAD.

CHAPT. t.

one in its course: so great is the force they acquire, that if by chance a log strikes against any impedimcnt in the sides of the slide, it is tossed out by theshock, and eitlier snapped in two like wax, or shivered to Splinters. The slides destined for the transport of firc-wood, offen end abruptly on the brow of a liill, where there is a pool or river bcneath to receive the wood as it is precipitated from the height. It is a curious spectacle to see, as it were, a cascade of wood, several hundred feet in height, propelled with such a force that it describes a curve of from GO to 70 feet before it arvives at the bottom of the valley.

The strcams which traversc the forest districts arc offen so shallow and so much impcded by rocks, that even aftcr rain they would be insufficient to carry forward tbc wood. In such cases the raftman makcs subservient to bis purposes every lake of the mountains, every morass, and every streamlet. At an enormous expcnse whole valleys liave been shut up by structures of masonry or wood, and the waters collected by sluice gates, until they have risen so as to form an artificial lake (called Schwellung), which offen contains upwards of 3 Millions of cubic feet of water. — So soon as the river with which this lake it connected, con­tains a sufficient quantity of logs or stoms, and the Schwel­lung an adequate proportion of water, the sluice gates are opened and the pent-up water rushes fortli with a fearful noise, carrying along these vast piles of wood; until they reach a river powerful enough to bear tliem without human assistance. One of these lakes is to be found at Gumpel- scheuer near Wildbad. — Even the larger rivers however often do not contain the quantity of water necessary to float these gigantic quantities of wood; — then their waters are raised by means of wears and sluice gates, thrown across the stream in an oblique direction at a point where