[1417] Those who are desirous of particular information respecting
everything that concerns the floating of wood may read Bergius,
Polizey- und Camera-magazin, vol. iii. p. 156; Krunitz, Encylopedie,
vol. xiv. p. 286; and the Forstmagazin, vol. viii. p. 1. To form an
idea of the many laborious, expensive, and ingenious establishments and
undertakings which are often necessary in this business, one may peruse
Mémoire sur les Travaux qui ont Rapport à l’Exploitation de la Mâture
dans les Pyrénées. Par M. Leroy. Londres et Paris, 1776, 4to. So early
as the time of cardinal Richelieu the French began to bring from the
Pyrenees timber for masts to their navy; but as the expense was very
great, the attempt was abandoned, till it was resumed in the year 1758
by a private company, who entered into a contract with the minister
for supplying the dock-yards with masts. After 1765 government took
that business into their own hands; but it was attended with very great
difficulties.
[1418] Plinius, lib. vi. cap. 56.--Strabo, lib. xvi. where he calls
these rafts σχεδίαι.--Festus, p. 432.--Scheffer, De Militia Navali
Veterum, lib. i. cap. 3.--Pitisci Lexicon Antiq. Rom. art. Rates.
[1419] “My servants shall bring them down from Lebanon unto the sea:
and I will convey them by sea in floats unto the place that thou shalt
appoint me.”--1 Kings, chap. v. ver. 9. “And we will cut wood out of
Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need: and we will bring it to thee in
floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem.”--2
Chronicles, chap. ii. v. 16. Pocock thinks that the wood was cut down
near Tyre. The accounts given by travellers of Mount Lebanon, and the
small remains of the ancient forests of cedar, have been collected by
Busching in his Geography.
The following is the account given of these cedars by the abbé Binos,
who visited them in the year 1778. “Here,” says he, “I first discovered
the celebrated cedars, which grow in an oval plain, about an Italian
mile in circumference. The largest stand at a considerable distance
from each other, as if afraid that their branches might be entangled,
or to afford room for their tender shoots to spring up, and to elevate
themselves also in the course of time. These trees raise their proud
summits to the height of sixty, eighty, and a hundred feet. Three or
four, when young, grow up sometimes together, and form at length, by
uniting their sap, a tree of a monstrous thickness. The trunk then
assumes generally a square form. The thickest which I saw might be
about thirty feet round; and this size was occasioned by several having
been united when young. Six others, which were entirely insulated, and
free from shoots, were much taller, and seemed to have been indebted
for their height to the undivided effects of their sap.” These cedars,
formerly so numerous, are now almost entirely destroyed. In the year
1575, Rauwolff found twenty-four that stood round about in a circle,
and two others, the branches whereof are quite decayed with age;
Bellon, in 1550, counted twenty-eight old trees; Fremenet, in 1630,
counted twenty-two; La Roque, in 1688, twenty; Maundrell, in 1696,
sixteen; Dr. Pococke, in 1738, fifteen; and Schulze, in 1755, counted
twenty, besides some young ones; Burckhardt, in 1810, eleven or twelve;
Dr. Richardson, in 1818, eight; Mr. Robinson, in 1830, seven; Lord
Lindsay, in 1836, seven. Mr. Buckingham, in 1816, differs greatly from
the other authorities, computing the whole number of trees at two
hundred, of which he describes twenty as being very large.--TRANS.
[1420] Antiquit. lib. viii. These letters have been printed by
Fabricius in Codex Pseudepigraphus Veteris Testamenti, i. p. 1026.
[1421] Olymp. v. 29. Gesner, in explaining Pindar, translated
φάος or φῶς by the word _help_, which Hebraism occurs in the New
Testament, and also in Homer. The stream therefore assisted the
inhabitants while under a great inconvenience.
[1422] Chanaan, i. 29, p. 605.
[1423] Herodot. lib. iii.
[1424] See Pindar, ed. Welsted, 1697, fol. p. 53 and 56, a, 37.
[1425] Vitruv. lib. ii. 9, p. 77.
[1426] Plin. lib. xvi. cap. 39, p. 33 and 34.
[1427] Codex Theodos. lib. xiii. tit. 5, 10. Lex xiii. p. 78. Compare
Symmachi Epist. lib. x. ep. 58. As far as I know, such ordinances occur
also in the Code of Justinian.
[1428] See Sammlung vermischter Nachrichten zur Sächsischen Geschichte,
by G. J. Grundig and J. F. Klotzsch, vol. vi. 221.
[1429] Pertuchii Chronic. Portense, p. 54.
[1430] Rudolphi Gotha Diplomatica, pars i. p. 279.
[1431] See the Forest Laws in Fritschii Corp. Juris Ven. Forest.
[1432] Wood was conveyed in boats upon the Yonne so early as the year
1527. See Coquille in Histoire du Nivernois.
[1433] Traité de la Police, par De la Mare, iii. p. 839.--Savary,
Dictionnaire de Commerce, art. Bois flotté and Train.
[1434] De Jure Maritimo, p. i. c. 10. n. 100.
[1435] H. Junii Batavia. Lugd. Bat. 1558, 4to, p. 327.--Hugo Grotius
de Antiquitate Reipub. Batavicæ, cap. 4.--Délices de la Hollande.
Amst. 1685, 12mo, p. 218: “Les Wassenaers tiennent leur origine
d’une village qui est entre Leiden et la Haye, ou des droits qu’ils
eurent les siecles passez sur les eaux, les estangs et les lacs de
la Hollande.”---Those who are fond of indulging in conjecture might
form the following conclusion:--The lakes and streams belonged to
the Wassenaers, who kept swans, geese and ducks upon them. When the
brewers were desirous of clearing the water from the duck-weed, which
in Fritsch’s German Dictionary is called _Enten-grutz_, in order that
it might be fitter for use, they were obliged to pay a certain sum to
obtain permission; and when the practice of floating timber began, the
floats disturbed the ducks, and destroyed the plant on which they fed,
and the proprietors of floats were on this account obliged to pay a
certain tax also. But was it customary at that period to float timber
in the Netherlands?
[1436] Glossarium Manuale, iii. p. 850: “Gruta, Grutt, Gruit, appellant
tributum, quod pro cerevisia pensitatur.”