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WILDBAD, — CHAPT. I.

Tlierc are stations at sevcral placcs on tlie Upper Rhine, wlicrc the rafts, arriving from the Black Forest, are taken asumlcr, sorted and united again to grcater rafts, wliich by continued additions, as tlicy descend tlie rivcr, grow like an avalanche, and at last, on the Lower Rhine, aceumu- late to gigantic structnres tliat look like swimming is- lands. Small towns of log liuts are ercctcd on them for tlie accommodatiou of the hundreds of men necessary for tlieir navigation, and the sale of provisions at the places whcre they use to stop overnight, resembles an improvised fair. Great sums are floated in the rafting trade, and con- sidcrable profits derivcd from it. The latter depend greatly upon the skill of the hclmsmcn who navigate the rafts, for though tbe Rliine appears quiet enough to the tra- veller, observing only from the deck of bis Steamer, yet there are in it many obstacles and impediments, in the shapc of bridges to shoot, sunk rocks, sbarp turnings, etc., wliich scarcely can be said to exist for smaller craft, while they become detrimeatal if eneountcrcd by monsters, the mcre weight of whicli would be sufficient to crush the stoutest bridge they might chance to strike. Tlierc is a current saying on the Rhine: Every Flossherr (rafting master) must have a Capital of 300,000 Tlialers (about L. 50,000)— 100,000 in the forest, 100,000 on the water, and 100,000 in his pocket, to mcet losses.

In former ages the vast Stores of timber, growing in the Black Forest, were scarcely of any value to man, and the trees were allowed to flourish and rot, undisturbed by the axe, on tlie spot where nature sowed them. It is but since the sixteenth Century that the inhabitants became aware of the wealth hidden in the recesses of tlieir mountaius. Thcn the Dutch, whose commerce and power were rising to an unprecedented lieight, first camc to the valleys of the