was taken out of the flume. I thought that there was too little
water and too sharp a drop. I did not know what to do. So I sent
my workers home so that I could quietly consider the problem.
The curves of the flume were correct; of that there was no
doubt. So what had gone wrong? I walked slowly along the
flume until I came to the trap and the sorting basins, from
which a further length of flume continued. The basins were
full. I sat on a rock above the water in the Sun.
Suddenly I felt something moving below my leather
trousers. Jumping up I saw a coiled snake. I picked it up and
threw it away; it fell into the basin and tried to get out, but the
bank was too steep. As it swam back and forth I was amazed
that it could swim so fast without fins. Observing it through
my binoculars I saw its peculiar twisting movements in the
clear water. Finally the snake reached the far bank. For some
time I stood quietly and went over in my mind the snake's
bodily movements of horizontal and vertical curves. Suddenly
I understood how it had done it!The snake's movement was that of a spiral space-curve twisting like
the horn of a Kudu antelope. Calling back his workers, he ordered
the holding basin to be emptied and the log removed. He then gave
instructions to attach thin wooden slats to the curved sides of the
flume walls, which would act like the rifling in a gun barrel, and
would make the water rotate anti-clockwise on left hand bends and
clockwise at right hand bends. Promised double wages, they worked
through the night, and the adjustments were completed in time for
the opening in the morning.
The inauguration of the flume was attended by the Prince and
Princess, by the Chief Forestry Commissioner and a number of
hydraulic specialists, the last ready to gloat over Viktor's humiliation.
After greeting the royal couple and the head forester, he continued:I opened the lock, behind which my workers started to
arrange the smaller logs in the water. Unnoticed, a heavier log
about 3ft (90cm) in diameter went in with the others. The
senior log master shouted,'We cannot have that one.' I gave a
quick wave and the unwanted log floated high, towards the
outflow. Quickly it created a blockage that raised the water
level. No one said anything, staring at the log rising out of theHIDDEN NATURE