how fast an expert "peeler" can remove the bark from a log or tree with his doublebit peeling ax, the bits being thin, about eight inches broad, each bit being shaped somewhat like an ancient battle ax. The logs are hauled to the edge of a stream and placed on the landing or dumped into a dam made for the purpose. Sometimes logs were pushed for miles in chutes, or "slides," made of small trees. In making these chutes one tree was pinned on a piece of timber laid on the ground or sometimes elevated on blocks to overcome unevenness of the line, with a piece fastened at either side as a fender. Into the groove thus formed the logs were placed--sometimes many in number--a team of horses was hitched to the hindmost log by means of a grab driven into the rear end, and this log being shoved on and bumped started those ahead of it. On reaching the dump the team was turned around or run to one side of a tree or pole close to the chute, and the grab released from its hold.
As much of this logging was done on small streams, resort was had to splash-dams to drive the logs down to the river. A splash-dam is constructed with a wicket that may be raised or lowered at pleasure, and when ready it is opened, releasing the water held in store and carrying the logs below down the stream, along which men, provided with pike-poles, are stationed to keep them in the channel. The boots of these men are armed with spikes somewhat like the climbers used by linemen on telegraph and electric poles, only smaller, and thus provided they often leap on logs to release jams with the greatest imaginable dexterity and fearlessness--a hazardous undertaking nevertheless. Sometimes a number of logs were made into rafts, but logs were often floated loose.
When the spring had opened and the ice had left the river sufficiently to insure safety, the sluices of the great dams in which the rafts were securely held were opened and the downward journey along the river began.
This was a perilous journey, and none but the hardiest of men were desirable for raftsmen. To steer the raft aright was a very particular job. Sometimes bends were to be rounded where the current hugged the shore, often boulders and obstructions had to be avoided, and dams had to be "shot" through chutes provided for the purpose. Here, if the raft was not kept straight in the current as it entered the chute there was great danger of its being wrecked. If the front bowsman was not an expert there was the probability of his being swept off by the
|
