Before any step could be taken in its erection it was necessary to cut several thousand trees to obtain a passage through the impenetrable thickets; and as the workmen advanced, men were posted at certain distances in order to point out the road for their return. Mr. Rulph was often obliged to be suspended by cords, in order to descend precipices many hundred feet high, to give directions, having scarcely two good carpenters among his men, they having been hired as the occasion offered.
All difficulties being at length surmounted, the larger pines, which were about one hundred feet long, and ten inches thick at their smaller extremity, ran through the space of three leagues, or nearly nine miles, in three minutes and a half; and, during their descent, appeared to be only a few feet in length. The arrangements were extremely simple. Men were posted at regular distances along the slide, and as soon as everything was ready the man at the bottom called out to the next one above him, “Lachez!”—Let go! The cry was repeated, and reached the top of the slide in three minutes; the man at the top of the slide then cried out to the one below, “Il vient!”—It comes! As soon as the tree had reached the bottom, and plunged into the lake, the cry of “Lachez!” was repeated as before. By these means a tree descended every five or six minutes. When a tree, by accident, escaped from the trough of the slide, it often penetrated by its thickest extremity from eighteen to twenty-four feet into the earth, and if it struck another tree, it cleft it with the rapidity of lightning.
Such was the enterprising work undertaken and executed under the direction of a single individual. This wondrous structure, however, no longer exists, and scarcely a tree is to be seen on the flanks of Mount Pilatus. Political events having taken away the demand for timber, and another market having been found, the operation of cutting and transporting the trees necessarily ceased.
Let us now glance at the enterprise of erecting a more durable monument. Russia, proud of her Czar, the celebrated Peter the Great, wished to erect a monument to his memory. Catherine the Second was the monarch who had the direction of the work, and her choice for an artist fell upon M. Falconet, who, in his conception of an equestrian statue, resolved that the subordinate parts should bear an equal impress of genius. “The pedestals in general use,” he observed, “had no distinctive feature, and adapt themselves equally well to any subject. Being of so universal application they suggest no new or elevated thoughts to the beholder.” Falconet wished to make the Czar appear as the father and legislator of his people—great and extraordinary in everything—undertaking and completing that which others were unable to imagine. To carry out this conception a precipitous rock was fixed on for the pedestal, on which the statue should appear with characteristics distinguishing it from those erected to other sovereigns.
Falconet’s first idea was to form this pedestal of six masses of rock, bound together with bars of iron or copper; but the objection was urged, that the natural decay of the bands would cause a disruption of the various parts, and present a ruinous aspect, while it would be difficult to insure perfect uniformity in the quality and appearance of the different blocks. The next proposal was to form it of one whole rock; but this appeared impossible, and in a report to the senate it was stated that the expense would be so enormous as almost to justify the abandonment of the undertaking. At length it was resolved to bring to the city of St. Petersburg the largest rock that could be found, cost what it might.
The search for a huge mass of rock was begun, but the whole summer was passed in vain exploration. The idea of forming the pedestal of several pieces had again been entertained, when an immense stone was discovered near Cronstadt, which it was determined to use as the principal mass. Various mechanics having been applied to, refused to undertake the task of removing this stone, as did likewise the Russian Admiralty.
Fortunately for M. Falconet, he was acquainted with a native of Cephalonia, who had assumed the name of Lascary, and who, while serving in the corps of cadets, had given high proofs of mechanic skill. Lascary had all along strenuously recommended the adoption of the original design, and now undertook the formation of the pedestal. A few days after his appointment to this commission he received information from a peasant of a large rock lying in a marsh near a bay in the Gulf of Finland, about twenty miles from St. Petersburg by water. The stone was examined, and the base, by sounding around it, was found to be flat. It was a parallelopipedon in form, and was forty-two feet long, twenty-seven feet wide, and twenty-one feet high. These were dimensions sufficiently extensive to realise the conceptions of M. Falconet. The authorities, when the mass was beheld, again recommended its being cut into separate portions for convenient removal. The Empress Catherine and her minister Betzky, were, however, on the side of Lascary, and orders were imperatively given to commence the strange enterprise.
The resolution was taken by M. Lascary to remove the stone without the use of rollers, as these not only present a long surface, which increases the friction and thereby impedes speed, but are not easily made of the great diameter that would have been required owing to the soft and yielding nature of the ground on which the work was to be performed. Spherical bodies, revolving in a metallic groove, were then chosen as the means of transport. These offered many advantages; their motion is more prompt than that of rollers, with a less degree of friction, as they present but small points of contact. Beams of wood, of a foot square, and thirty-three feet in length, were then prepared; one side was hollowed in the form of a gutter, and lined, the sides being convex to the thickness of two inches, with a composition of copper and tin. Balls of the same composite metal, five inches in diameter, were then made, to bear only on the bottom of the groove. These beams were intended to be placed on the ground in a line in front of the stone, while upon them were reversed two other beams prepared in a similar manner, each forty-two feet long and one foot and a half square, connected as a frame by stretchers and bars of iron fourteen feet in length, carefully secured by nuts, screws, and bolts.
A load of three thousand pounds, when placed on the working model (which had been first constructed) was found to move with ease. Betzky, the minister, was pleased with the exhibition of the model; but the crowds who came to witness it cried, “A mountain upon eggs!” But Lascary was not to be driven from his purpose, so intelligently formed, by a little unthinking clamour.
The rock lay in a wild and deserted part of the country, and therefore the first thing to be done was to build barracks capable of accommodating four hundred labourers, artisans, and others. These, with M. Lascary, were all lodged on the spot, as the readiest means of forwarding the work. From the rock to the river Neva a line of road was then cleared a distance of six versts, or twenty-one thousand English feet, to a width of one hundred and twenty feet, in order to gain space for the various operations and to give a free circulation of air, so essential to the health of workmen in a marshy district, as well as to the drying and freezing of the ground—a point of much importance when the enormous weight to be removed is considered. The operation of disinterring the rock was commenced in December, when the influence of the frosts began to be felt. It was embedded to the depth of fifteen feet; the excavation required to be of great width—eighty-four feet all round—to admit of turning the stone, which did not lie in the most favourable position for removal. An inclined plane, six hundred feet in length, was afterwards made, by means of which, when the stone was turned, it might be drawn up to the level surface.