The conveying of wood in floats is an excellent invention; as countries
destitute of that necessary article can be supplied by water carriage,
not only with timber for building and other useful purposes, but also
with fire-wood. The former is either pushed into the water in single
trunks, and suffered to be carried along by the stream, or a number of
planks are ranged close to each other in regular order, bound together
in that manner, and steered down the current as boats are, by people
accustomed to such employment. The first method is that most commonly
used for fire-wood. Above floats of the second kind a load of spars,
deals, laths, pipe-staves, and other timber, is generally placed; and
with these, floaters will trust themselves on broad and rapid rivers,
whereas fire-wood is fit to be transported only on rivulets or small
streams; and sometimes canals are constructed on purpose[1417]. However
simple the invention of floating fire-wood may be, I consider the
other method as the oldest; and I confess that I do not remember to
have found in ancient authors any information respecting the former.
Fire-wood was, indeed, not so scarce formerly in the neighbourhood of
large cities as it is at present. Men established themselves where it
was abundant; and they used it freely, without thinking on the wants
of posterity, till its being exhausted rendered it necessary for them
to import it from distant places. It is probable that the most ancient
mode of constructing vessels for the purpose of navigation gave rise
to the first idea of conveying timber for building in the like manner;
as the earliest ships or boats were nothing else than rafts, or a
collection of beams and planks bound together, over which were placed
deals. By the Greeks they were called _schediai_, and by the Latins
_rates_; and it is known from the testimony of many writers, that the
ancients ventured out to sea with them on piratical expeditions as well
as to carry on commerce; and that after the invention of ships they
were still retained for the transportation of soldiers and of heavy
burthens[1418].
The above conjecture is confirmed by the oldest information to be found
in history respecting the conveyance by water of timber for building.
Solomon entered into a contract with Hiram, king of Tyre, by which the
latter was to cause cedars for the use of the temple to be cut down
on the western side of Mount Lebanon above Tripoli, and to be floated
to Jaffa. The words at least employed by the Hebrew historian, which
occur nowhere else, are understood as alluding to the conveyance of
timber in floats; and this explanation is considered by Michaelis as
probable. At present no streams run from Lebanon to Jerusalem; and the
Jordan, the only river in Palestine that could bear floats, is at a
great distance from the cedar forest. The wood, therefore, must have
been brought along the coast by sea to Jaffa[1419]. In this manner is
the account understood by Josephus; but although he assures us that he
gives the letters of both the kings as they were at that time preserved
in the Jewish and Tyrian annals, it is certain that they are spurious,
and that he took the whole relation from the sacred books of the Jews
which are still extant, as he himself tells us in the beginning of his
work[1420].
An old tradition prevailed that the city Camarina, on the southern
coast of Sicily, was built of the clay or mud which the river Hipparis
carried along with it, and deposited in a lake of the same name. This
account seems to be confirmed by a passage in Pindar, which Aristarchus
quotes in explaining it[1421]; and, according to Bochart, some proof is
afforded also by the name Camarina, as _chamar_ or _chomar_ signifies
sealing-clay[1422]. In this tradition there is nothing improbable. In
the like manner the Egyptians drew up mud from the lake Mœris[1423];
and thus do the Dutch at present fish up in bag-nets the fine mud
or slime which chokes up their rivers, such as the Issel, and which
they employ for various uses. This explanation, however, has not been
adopted by the old commentators of Pindar. Didymus[1424] and others
assert that the poet alludes to wood for building the city being
conveyed in floats on the river Hipparis. But whatever opinion may
be formed of these elucidations of the scholiasts, we have reason to
conclude that the inhabitants of Camarina were much better acquainted
with the floating of wood than with drawing up slime by means of
bag-nets.
The Romans transported by water both timber for building and fire-wood.
When they became acquainted, during their wars against the Germans,
with the benefit of the common larch, they caused large quantities
of it to be carried on the Po to Ravenna from the Alps, particularly
the Rhætian, and to be conveyed also to Rome for their most important
buildings. Vitruvius says[1425] that this timber was so heavy, that,
when alone, the water could not support it, and that it was necessary
to carry it on ships or on rafts. Could it have been brought to Rome
conveniently, says he, it might have been used with great advantage in
building. It appears, however, that this was sometimes done; for we
are told that Tiberius caused the Naumachiarian bridge, constructed by
Augustus, and afterwards burnt, to be rebuilt of larch planks procured
from Rhætia. Among these was a trunk one hundred and twenty feet in
length, which excited the admiration of all Rome[1426].
That the Romans procured fire-wood from Africa, particularly for
the use of the public baths, is proved by the privileges granted
on that account to the masters of ships or rafts by the emperor
Valentinian[1427]. Those who have read the writings of the Latin
authors with attention must have remarked other testimonies; but I have
found no mention in the ancients of floating timber in single planks,
or of canals dug for that purpose; at least as far as I can remember.
In the Latin language also there are scarcely two words that allude
to what concerns the floating of timber; whereas the German contains
more of that kind, perhaps, than are to be found in any other; and I am
thence induced to conjecture that the Germans were the first who formed
establishments for this mode of conveyance on a large scale.
The earliest information respecting the floating of wood in Saxony
appears to be as old as the year 1258[1428], when the margrave Henry
the Illustrious remitted by charter to the monastery of Porta, the
duty collected at Camburg from the wood transported on the river Saale
for the use of the monastery[1429]. It is, however, uncertain whether
wood really conveyed in floats, or transported in boats and lighters,
be here meant. Much clearer information concerning wood floated on the
Saale is contained in a letter, expedited in the year 1410 by the two
brothers Frederic and William, landgraves of Thuringia, and margraves
of Misnia, in which, on account of the scarcity of wood that prevailed
in their territories, they so much lessened the toll usually paid
on the Saale as far as Weissenfels, that a Rhenish florin only was
demanded for floats brought on that river to Jena, and two Rhenish
stivers for those carried to Weissenfels; but the proprietors of the
floats were bound to be answerable for any injury occasioned to the
bridge[1430]. In the year 1431, Hans Munzer, an opulent citizen of
Freyberg, with the assistance of the then burgomasters, put a float
of wood upon the river Mulda, which runs past the city, in order
that it might be conveyed thither for the use of the inhabitants and
of the mines; which seems to be a proof that the floating of timber
was at that period undertaken by private persons, on their own risk
and at their own expenses. In 1486 the floating of wood on the Mulda
by the people of Zwikaw, was opposed by the neighbouring nobility;
but the rights of the city were protected by the electors. When the
town of Aschersleben built its church in the year 1495, the timber
used for the work was transported on the Elbe from Dresden to Acken,
and thence on the Achse to the place of its destination. This is the
oldest account known of floating timber on the Elbe. In the year 1521,
duke George caused a large canal to be cut at the village of Plauen,
which was supplied with water from the Weiseritz, and carried as far
as Dresden. It appears that in 1564 there was a float-master, who was
obliged to give security to the amount of four hundred florins; so that
the business of floating must at that time have been of considerable
importance. Floating of wood was undertaken at Annaberg in 1564, by
George Oeder, one of the members of the council, and established at the
expense of 4000 florins. Of the antiquity of floating in other German
states I know nothing more than what is to be gathered from public
ordinances respecting this object and forests; by which we learn that
in the sixteenth century it was practised in Brandenburg, on the Elbe,
Spree, and Havel; in Bavaria, and in the duchy of Brunswick[1431].
As the city of Paris had consumed all the wood in its neighbourhood,
and as the price of that article became enormous on account of the
distance of forests and the expense of transporting it, John Rouvel,
a citizen and merchant, in the year 1549, fell upon the plan of
conducting wood bound together along rivers which were not navigable
for large vessels. With this view, he made choice of the forests
in the woody district of Morvant, which belonged to the government
of Nivernois; and as several small streams and rivulets had their
sources there, he endeavoured to convey into them as much water as
possible[1432]. That great undertaking, at first laughed at, was
completed by his successor René Arnoul, in 1566. The wood was thrown
into the water in single trunks, and suffered to be driven in that
manner by the current to Crevant, a small town on the river Yonne;
where each timber-merchant drew out his own, which he had previously
marked, and, after it was dry, formed it into floats that were
transported from the Yonne to the Seine, and thence to the capital. By
this method large quantities of timber are conveyed thither at present
from Nivernois and Burgundy, and some also from Franche-Comté. The
French extol highly a beneficial establishment formed by one Sauterau,
in Morvant, at his own expense, by which the transportation of timber
was rendered much more speedy, and for which a small sum was allowed
him from the proprietors of all the wood floated on the Yonne.
The success of this attempt soon gave rise to others. John Tournouer
and Nicholas Gobelin, two timber-merchants, undertook to convey floats
in the like manner on the Marne; and canals were afterwards constructed
in several places for the purpose of forming a communication between
different rivers. The French writers consider the transportation of
large floats, _trains de bois_, like those formed at present, from
the before-mentioned districts, and also from Bourbonnois, Champagne,
Lorraine, Montergis, and other parts of the kingdom, as a great
invention; but I am firmly of opinion that this method was known and
employed in Germany at a much earlier period[1433].
[Victor Hugo gives the following animated account of floating rafts.
The traveller who ascends the river sees it, so to speak, coming
to him, and then the sight is full of charms. At each instant he
meets something which passes him; at one time, a vessel crowded with
peasants, especially if it be Sunday; at another, a steam-boat; then a
long, two-masted vessel, laden with merchandize, its pilot attentive
and serious, its sailors busy, with women seated near the door of the
cabin; here, a heavy-looking boat, dragging two or three after it;
there, a little horse drawing a huge bark, as an ant drags a dead
beetle. Suddenly there is a winding in the river; and formerly, on
turning, an immense raft, a floating house, presented itself, the
oars splashing on both sides. On the ponderous machine were cattle of
all kinds, some bleating, and others bellowing, when they perceived
the heifers peaceably grazing on the banks. The master came and went,
looked at this, then at that, while the sailors busily performed their
respective duties. A whole village seemed to live on this float,--on
this prodigious construction of fir.]
The floating of wood seems, like many other useful establishments, to
have been invented or first undertaken by private persons at their
own risk and expense, with the consent of governments, or at least
without any opposition from them; but, as soon as it was brought to be
useful and profitable, to have been considered among regalia. Hence,
therefore, soon arose the float-regal, which, indeed, on account of the
free use granted of rivers, the many regulations requisite, and its
connexion with the forest-regal, can be sufficiently justified. But
when and where originated the term _jus grutiæ_, under which this regal
is known by jurists?
The few authors who have turned their thoughts to this question have
not been able, as far as I know, to answer it with certainty, nor
even with probability. They have only repeated, without making any
researches themselves, what Stypmann[1434] has said on the subject;
and the latter refers to a passage of Hadrian Junius, which I shall
here more particularly notice. Junius, speaking of the oldest families
in the Netherlands, says that the family of Wassenaer had formerly a
certain supremacy over the rivers in Rhineland, so that no one, without
their permission, could keep swans on them, and that the brewers paid
for the use of the water a certain tax called the _gruyt-geld_, from
which arose the _jus grutæ_. The origin of this word he did not know;
but he conjectured that it was derived either from _gruta_, which
signifies duckweed (_Lemna_), a plant that grows in the water and
covers its surface during the summer, or from _grut_, an ingredient
used in making beer[1435]. It is certain that in the tenth, eleventh,
and thirteenth centuries _gruta_, _grutt_, or _gruit_, signified a tax
which brewers were obliged to pay[1436]; but the origin of the word has
been sufficiently explained neither by Junius nor any other writer. I
nowhere find that it was used in ancient times for a float-duty; and
this meaning Junius himself has not so much as once mentioned.
The word _gruit_ occurs under a quite different sense in a letter of
investiture of the year 1593, by which the elector of Cologne gave as
a fief to the countess of Moers, the _gruit_ within the town of Berg,
with all its rents, revenues, and appurtenances. “No other person was
allowed to put _grudt_ or any plant in beer, or to draw beer brought
from other countries. On the other hand, the countess was to make
good _grutt_, and to cause it to be sold at the price usual in the
neighbouring parts; she was bound also to supply the elector gratis
with what beer was necessary for family consumption; and if more was
required than usual, on extraordinary occasions, she was to ask and
receive money. If any one in the town did not deliver good _gruidt_,
and should prove that he could not deliver better, as the fault was
occasioned by the _gruitte_, the loss that might arise should fall upon
the countess.” The word _grut_ or _gruitt_ seems to occur here under a
double meaning; as an ingredient in the beer, and as the beer itself
which was made from it. Of this difficulty I have in vain endeavoured
to find an explanation. _Grut_, perhaps, may signify malt. In Dutch
and other kindred languages _grut_ means the small refuse which is
separated from anything; and to which _grusch_ bran, and _grütze_
groats, have an affinity. May not ground malt be understood by it? I
have thought likewise of a kind of herb-beer, which was much esteemed
in the sixteenth century; and that _grut_ might signify a mixture of
herbs used for making that beer. It is probable that this word was
confined within the boundaries of the Netherlands; and thence only,
perhaps, is an explanation of it to be expected.
I am, however, still unable to comprehend how the float-duty obtained
the name of _jus grutiæ_; and in our kindred languages I can find no
derivation of it. The German word _flosz_, from _fliessen_, to flow
or glide; _flusz_, a river, occurs in them all. The Dutch say _vlot_,
_vlothout_; the Swedes, _en flott_, _flotta_, to float; _flot-wed_,
float-wood; and the English, _a float_, _to float_, &c.