The greatest difficulty attends the getting out of the timber to a market such as Foochow. In the fast place it all lies up long, deep, and winding side ravines, and has to be conveyed somehow to the main stream. It has to be cut on the steep hill side and dragged to some spot in the ravine below whence the freshets, when they come, may carry the logs or poles, as the case may be. out. All this would be simple if weather conditions were dependable and regular, but the contractor who undertakes to get the timber out never knows when he is going to have the whole of his season's cut carried away and scattered along the banks or over the rocks of the main stream, and so be involved in heavy expenses for salvage The trees have to be felled during the dry season, that is from August tu February, and this hardly allows time for them to dry out before the rainy season sets in, when they should be ready to be rafted down to the coast. If they are not ready in time it means that they have to wait another year, and since the woods are very damp, they are subject to rotting.
The main river, though possibly suited to the purpose, is so full of boat traffic that the logs cannot be drifted down loose, but have to be made into rafts, which must be manned by crews of several men in
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.