Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, IA [i.e. Ind.]) 1839-1854, 1839-05-11
SLIDE Or THE ALPANCH-

Playfir's Journey into France, Stoitseriand,
and Italy:
From the reports Of the Chamois hunters en-
pioyed in the Swiss canton of U.erwadcn, II was
ascertaincd that there were immense forests OF
the finest timber spread eat on tho mountains
particularly the south side OF PIstus, but IN a
situation which the height, The steepness, AID
the ruggcdness Of the ground, seem TO render
quite inaccessible. Mr.. Rupp, native OF WIZ
temberg, ard a very skifu eng ineer, then resi-
dent in the canton of Schwytz, was induced
TO viSit the locality IN question; and ne was so
much struck with The appearance OF the forest,
that he conceived the bold project OF Bringing
down the trees by no other force than their
own weight into the lake of Lucerbe, from
which the conveyance to tho German Ocean
would be easy and expeditions. The medium
height of the forest Is about 2JOU ieet ana me
horizontal distance which the trees had I" be
veyed from the spot where they grew to The
lake into which they were to be launched, was
eight miles and about three iuflongs. The de-
clivity is theretoreone foot in l7GS: The medium
angle Of elevation 3 deg. II rnin. ~ sec
This docliyity, though go moderate on the whole,
is, told, in many places IS very RAPID; al
the beeinlng the inclination about one iourth oil
a right angle, or % deg. 80 mln.; IN many places
10 is 10 deg; but where greater than The an-
gle first mentioned, % deg 30 min. The IN
ciination continues OF this quantity of 500 feet,
after which tho way IS less steep, and often
consido rabiy less cifcu,tons, according 10 HE
direction which the ruggedness Ut The ground
forces ii 10 take
The Slide IN question consists OF sort OF
trough built after the form of a cradle and OK
tending from the forest TO the edge othe lake
Three trees squared, and Iaidside by side, form
the bottom Of the trough; the tree III the middle
having It's surfacehoOwed SO that rIi oil
wafer received from distance to distance may be
conveyed, along the bottom, and preserve II
moist Adjoining 10 the central part oil the
trough, other trees also squared arc lad parallel
To the former, in such manner as to form
trough rounded in the interior, and oil such d.
Inensions as to allow the largest trees to lie or
10 move along quite readily. In general 1t Is
from five to six feet wide at top,and from three
TO four in depth, varying however, In different
places according To circumstances In all II
contains abou, thirty thousand trees: crosse. IN
It's way three great ravincs, one at the height OF
81 feet, another at The height of lob, and
the third, where it goes along the face OF a rock,
at the height of l57 ;and in two places II is CON
veyed under ground
The trees which descend by this conveyance
are spruce frs, very straight, and of great SIZE
All the branches are Topped off; the bark Is
stripped away, and the surface of course made
toIeraby smooth. The logs, zoo, OF which the
trough is composed, are dressed with the axe SO
rs to re move all considerable inequalities and
10 facilitate the passage OF the trees; when
,eing placed iE it with the large end foremost,
ire lauucDcu OH In the direction Vi tho LuAS.-
As the decvity of the troughat the upper
,art is yery great the tree in a few seconds ac-
lures such q velocity enables II to reach the
water in the short space OF six minutes; re-
ut, as Mr.. Pla fair observes, altogether astound
ny when ii is considered that The distance IS
more than miles, that the average decii'ily IS
,ut one foot seventeen and that the route "hich
The trees have To follow Is often clrcultous, and
in some places almost horizontal.
1--WE saw five trees come down; the place where
we stood was near the lower end, and the declisi-
~ was inconsidctable, (the bottom OF tho Slide
nearly resting on the surface of the ground, yet
The trees passed with astounding rapidly The
greatest of them spruce FIR, "a hundred feet
long four feet in diameter at the lower end, and
one foot at the upper. The greatest trees are
those which descend with the greatest rapldity;
and tho velocity as well us theroaring of this
ono was evidently greater than of the rest. A
tree must be very large to descend at all In tins
manner; tree MIR. Rupp informed US, that was
only half the dimensions of the proceeding, and
therefore only eighth part OF It's weight
would not be able to make It's way from the top
to the bottom. One of the trees that we saw,
broke bv some accident in two, the lighter part
stopt almost Immediately, and the remaining
part came to rest soon after. This is vaiua-
bile fact: it appears from 1t that the friction is
not in proportion 10 the weight, but becomes
relatively less the weight increases, contrary
to the opinion that Is generally received.
"In viewing tho descent Of the trees, my
nephew and stood quite close to tho edge OF the
trough, not being more interested about any
thing than experience the impression which
the near view Of So singular an object must
make on a spectator. The noise, the rapidity oil
the motion, the magnitude of the moving body,
and the force with which they seemed to shake
the the trough it passed, were altogether
very formidable, and conveyed ideas OF danger
much greater than the reality. Our guide re-
fused to partake of our amusement; he retired be-
hind tree at some distance, where he had the
consolation to be- assured by Mr. Rupp, that ne
was no safer than we were, as u tree, when II
happened to bolt from the trough, would often
cut the standing trees clear over Daring the
whole time the Slide has existed, there have
been three or four fatal accidents, and one IN
stance was the consequence of excessive teineril,
The trees thus brought down into the lake
of Lucerne are formed into RATS, and floated down
the very rapid stream OF the Ruess, by when
tho lake discharges its waters first into the Aar,
and afterwards into The Rhine. BY this convey
ance which is all of 1t IN streams OF great rapid
,ty tho trees sometimes reach Basic IN a few
DAYS after they have left Lucerne; and there Inc
immediate concern # the Aipnach company ter
inmates. They afterwards navigated down
n flo,