messes some very rich houses, with whom it is become almost a
point of duty to open fresh outlets to the commerce of the countiy,
and since bad harvests have obliged other houses to direct their
capital to articles till then almost unknown, the timber trade at
Kherson has progressed very rapidly. In 1833 the value of the
timber and wood exported from that place amounted to 1,000,000
roubles, or nearly 180,000Z. In 1834 many ships loaded with
masts and staves for France and Spain. The great saving efiiected
in the charges of transportation to ports of shipment, as well as
*« on freights, will render it impossible for the trade of Riga, hence-

f forward, to compete with that of the Black Sea, in supplying the

rj south of Europe, where the consumption (of staves more particu-

larly) is very great. Kherson is able to obtain timber from the
i veri/ same forests which supply Riga^ at from 20 to 30 per cent,

clieaper^ owing to the loss of interest on the capital employed,
six months being the intermediate time of its arrival at Kherson,
': whilst the passage to Riga occupies at least twenty months.
