The timber of the spruce firs which grow on the sides of the Alps, is considered much finer than that which is produced in other situations; but the inaccessible nature of these Alpine forests long prevented those useful trees from being sent in any great quantity to the market. During our long continental war, however, a bold and skilful plan was invented, by which this timber was procured in abundance. M. Rupp, an enterprising foreigner, constructed an immense inclined plane of wood on the sides of Mount Pilatus, near the Lake Lucerne; its length was eight miles and a half. Twenty-five thousand large pine trees were employed in its construction. These were barked and put together very ingeniously, without the aid of iron. It occupied one hundred and sixty workmen during eighteen months, and cost nearly a hundred thousand francs, or 4250_l._ sterling. It was completed in the year 1812. The following description of the slide appeared in a German periodical shortly after its completion:--“This slide has the form of a trough, about six foot broad and from three to six foot deep. Its bottom is formed of three trees, the middle one of which has a groove cut out in the direction of its length, for receiving small rills of water, which are conducted into it from various places, for the purpose of diminishing the friction. The whole of the slide is sustained by about two thousand supports; and in many places it is attached, in a very ingenious manner, to the rugged precipices of granite. “The direction of the slide is sometimes straight, and sometimes zig-zag, with an inclination of from 10° to 18°. It is often carried along the sides of hills and the flanks of precipitous rocks, and sometimes passes over their summits. Occasionally it goes under ground, and at other times it is conducted over the deep gorges by scaffoldings one hundred and twenty feet in height.