Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - IV. Forestry - 2. Forest Industries. By E. Arosenius - Floating. By Th. Örtenblad
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206
iv. forestry.
siderable quantity of beams or balks, charcoal-wood, pulpwood, and, in
some cases, even fuebwood, is transported by floating.
If it were not for the floating-ways, it would, in many cases, he
impossible to make use of the forest-products from the interior of the
country otherwise than for local needs. Sweden’s prominent position
in the world’s timber trade depends, therefore, to a certain degree upon
the numerous rivers and their suitability as floating-ways. In general,
the rivers of Sweden run towards the south-east, south, or south-west, a
matter of great importance for the floating of timber as, in consequence
of this trend of the rivers, the melting of the snow and ice begins first
at the mouths of the rivers and proceeds gradually up stream. This
makes the ice-drift and the flood-water of less extent than in the case
of rivers the course of which is to the north. As a rule, the banks of
the Swedish rivers are so high that the water does not flood the
surrounding country even when the rivers are highest, and so floating can
proceed at this period, too. The large rivers of Norrland and Dalarne,
whose sources are in the high mountain ranges, have such a constant
supply of water, owing to the melting of the snow on the mountains, that
floating can, as a rule, be carried on all through the summer. As regards
the waterways of Southern Sweden used for floating, as well as the
smaller rivers and tributaries of Northern Sweden, where the supply of
water is sufficient only during the time of the spring floods, the lakes and
mountain tarns through which they run have frequently been transformed
into adjustable water-reservoirs in the service of the floating by means
of relatively cheap dams.
There is a distinction made between public and private floating-ways. Nearly
all the main waters in Northern Sweden are public floating-ways, and so are
many of the tributaries. Private floating-ways now occur almost exclusively in
such cases where all the forests from which timber is to be floated down the
water-courses belong to a single owner. Public floating-ways are constructed,
after application to the Governor of the län, by one or several of the forest
owners interested therein. The line of the floating-way is then inspected by a
functionary appointed by the Governor of the län. The riparian owners, and
others whose interests may be affected by the proposed regulation of the
waterway, having been consulted, it is then desided what constructions are to be
made, what amortization is to be paid in consequence, how the floating-course
shall be divided into sections, and when the construction is to take place. After
the work has been completed, the final inspection takes place, and the
floating-way is declared open; simultaneously, the Governor of the län issues regulations
for a Floating Company, which has to superintend the floating and debit the
expenses to the respective floaters; these costs include the amortization of the
building-expenses of the floating-way.
Some of our large rivers are used for timber floating, in larger or smaller
portions of their course, without any alteration, and in the very same condition
that Nature created them. For the regulation of the tributaries, proportionately
more work and expense are generally required, and, consequently, they have been
adapted to floating at a later date than the main rivers were. At present most of
them, probably, are cleared, but there are a few which are still untouched.
Whether it will pay to form a floating-way or not, depends on the amount of
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