22 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



April 10, 1922 



The great continent of Africa spread out before them where to 

 choose, the inbred characteristic herein mentioned becomes a valu- 

 able asset to his white employer. 



The rainy seasons are best for hauling, the skids over which the 

 flattened logs slide along the logging road are wet and slippery and 

 this greatly facilitates the work. In a dry spell of weather the 

 foreman resorts to the expedient of placing on the skids the juicy, 

 succulent leaves of the plantain, in size six to ten feet long and two 

 to three feet wide, with a large stem full of sap. These placed 

 in front of the log for it to slide over are as good as twenty 

 men added to the team. Hauling after a time becomes monotonous, 

 and an occasional day or two at floating logs away from the landing 

 is welcomed bv all the laborers who "savev swim." Eiver driv- 



but the mahogany trees are missing. Hundreds of trees have been 

 felled and never hauled, the native logger having exhausted hia 

 resources and so abandoned the tree to moulder and rot where it 

 fell. This kind of waste is still going on, the ambition of the 

 native to become a timber merchant being to his mind achieved 

 when a few trees have been cut down, and in this condition the 

 logs are offered for sale, the only requisite before delivery being an 

 advance of cash to pay labor. In most eases the advance is used 

 for other purposes and the logs lie and rot, serving meanwhile 

 as a bait for further advances from new purchasers. Along all 

 floating rivers and creeks, thousands of the finest and most avail- 

 able mahoganies have been used in the making of canoes or dug- 

 outs, such as the natives use for river travel and transport. Other 



B7 courtesy of the American ForeatiT Ma««ilBe, Wa..;..;..,; ;.. ] '. i. . 



THE MILL CAN NEVER GRIND WITH THE WATER THAT HAS PASSED 



Unless the logs are ready for the floating when the small streams rise suddenly it may be a long time before there is enough water to carry them out, so 

 night and day the camp foreman must be ready to rush his crew to the stream when water comes. The lettering on the logs indicates the 



Mengel Mahogany Logging' company 



ing is under most conditions devoid of the elements of romance, 

 at times full of danger, but seldom is carried on at night. No one 

 inexperienced in driving logs can understand the disadvantages 

 and awkward possibilities of night work. A shadow will deceive 

 the most practiced eye, but will not serve the usefulness of a real 

 log in supporting the luckless driver who leaps upon it in his work. 

 In tropical Africa success in log driving is to be gained only by 

 constant vigilance and being always ready to take advantage of 

 the water the moment it rises. Without warning, a creek may fill 

 with water to a floating stage, and in an hour or two the flood will 

 have subsided, leaving the stream in its normal flow, and the log 

 will never float "with the water that has passed." 



On the larger streams, the mahogany trees have long since been 

 cut; some of them in recent years have been made into logs and 

 taken to market, but by far the greater number have been felled 

 during the centuries that the continent has been inhabited. This 

 has been done in clearing ground for villages and patches of land 

 for pbinting crops; the process is still going on, though to less 

 extent. These old clearings are now grown up to young forest. 



mediums of destruction have assisted in so stripping the forests 

 of their mahogany trees that the logger is now obliged to utilize the 

 smaller creeks and tributaries, and even here, though in lesser 

 degree, are found the same conditions. 



On the small streams one must rely entirely on rainfall to drive 

 logs to the main rivers. The more thorough the work of preparing 

 the bed of the stream, the less water will be required, but at best 

 the rains must fall. The heavy showers do not, as a rule, time their 

 coming to suit the riverman. More often than otherwise, they 

 begin to fall late in the day from four to six o'clock. The rain may 

 fall in torrents for an hour or two and not perceptibly raise the 

 creek at the place the water is needed, being a local shower not 

 reaching any of the country the drainage of which feeds the upper 

 tributaries. The rains that fall far up the creek and beyond the 

 range of local observation are the ones to furnish the water to float 

 the logs. Throughout the season a watch must be kept both night 

 and day on the bank of the stream to notify the foreman of a raise 

 of water, and, if in the night, he must rouse the men. It may be 

 that all are asleep and the camp as quiet as the night is dark. 



