234
THE ALPINE REGIONS.
which is then brought down in sacks by horses and mules. Themen engaged in this occupation are a grimy rough-looking lot,but I never heard any harm of them. Besides this, however, avast quantity of timber is felled for building and other work-ing purposes; in 1853 Switzerland alone exported 659,220*metrical quintals; and the huge waggons loaded with planks orvast boles, fit for an argosy’s mast, may be seen daily toilingover the Ampezzo Pass on their way to Venice and the north ofItaly . The French Alps are on the whole not so well woodedas the districts further north.
Timber is generally conveyed down from the forests in oneof two ways; either it is cut up into logs some five feet long,and thrown into a neighbouring torrent, which bears it downcliff and gorge to the valley below; or else trougli-like slides areconstructed along the mountain sides, down which the trunksthemselves are launched. The passenger by the steamer onthe Lake of Brienz may often notice a perfect shoal of logsfloating on the water at the foot of the Giessbacli falls; thesehave been sent down the cascade from the upper forests, andwill presently be conveyed away in boats or rafts to the depotsat Interlaclien or Thun.
The woodman’s life also is not without its dangers. Hiswork is generally begun in the winter; so there is always riskfrom the avalanche, as he wades through the snow, often waistdeep, to ‘blaze’ the trees. These, when felled, must be conveyedto the border of a torrent, either by rolling them down theslopes or by the aid of a slide, called in the patois of the French -speaking districts a rize. This is a long channel constructed ofpine-trunks, placed side by side and supported upon strongposts. Dowm this the logs thunder like arrows from a bow.Suppose them to have reached the brink of the torrent, thew T orst part of the work then begins. If its stream is not strong