When in motion, a dozen boats and more precede
them, carrying anchors and cables to guide and arrest their course. The
navigation of a raft down the Rhine to Dort, in Holland, which is the
place of their destination,[4] is a work of great difficulty. The skill
of the German and Dutch pilots who navigate them, in spite of the abrupt
turnings, the eddies, the currents, rocks and shoals that oppose their
progress, must indeed be of a very peculiar kind, and can be possessed
but by few. It requires besides a vast deal of manual labour. The whole
complement of rowers and workmen, together with their wives and
children, on board one of the _first-rates_, amounts to the astonishing
number of nine hundred or a thousand; a little village, containing from
forty to sixty wooden houses, is erected upon each, which also is
furnished with stalls for cattle, a magazine for provisions, &c. The
dwelling appropriated to the use of the master of the raft and the
principal super-cargoes was conspicuous for its size and commodiousness.
It is curious to observe these rafts, on their passage, with their
companies of rowers stationed at each end, making the shores ring again
to the sound of their immense oars.
[4] About twelve of these rafts annually arrive at Dort, in
July or August; when the German timber merchants, having
converted their floats into good Dutch ducats, return to their
own country. When the water is low, those machines are
sometimes months upon the journey.
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