April 10, 1922 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



23 



By oourtesj of the American Forestry Magazine ^asMnrrtrn T) 



MAHOGANY LOGS SQUARED FOR THE ENGLISH AND CONTINENTAL MARKETS 

 The work of getting out the heavy timber from the wood to the sea coast and the steamer has to be done by man and animal power, owing to the nature of 



the country and the disteuice from European or American sources of supply 



Comes the watchman to the ■white man's bungalow with "Massa! 

 Massal Water he live for come!" "Go quick! ring bell!" is the 

 order, and in a moment the camp bell is sounding its warning and 

 the men are quickly astir and ready for the work in hand. 



Without a path cut all along the bank and close to the edge it 

 would be impossible to get near the creek or to the logs to work 

 them, even in the daytime. To ride the floating rear at the tail of 

 the jam is to invite collision with the overhanging branches, vines 

 and grasses with edges like saw teeth, only to be swept at last into 

 the water. Under ordinary circumstances such an incident would 

 be an occasion for jokes and merriment to the rivermen lucky 

 enough to witness the chagrin of their fellow, but here, with the 

 swift running current, the banks submerged and armed against 

 approach by a network of repelling brambles too flimsy and slender 

 to sustain the man who grasps them, and through which it would 

 be torture to penetrate if that were possible, the situation of the 

 driver is serious at best, and in the night conditions are present 

 which in the matter of safety to life and limb leave much to be 

 desired. 



Before the dry season ends, a quantity of dry bamboo has been 

 gathered and stored under cover, split into narrow strips, tied into 

 small bundles of suitable size for use as torches, to light as far as 

 is possible the river drivers at their work. Lanterns are prac- 

 tically worthless, the light easily extinguished and failing in 

 extremities and when life may depend upon a moment of light. 

 There is no need ever to want for volunteers to carry these torches, 

 as plenty of the bushmen "no savey swim," so they follow along 

 the path and light up the water as well as is possible for the men 

 at work on the logs. At the first alarm the foreman, taking with 

 him a few men, has hurried down the stream to the head of the 

 jam, where it lays as it was left on the sudden subsidence of a 



preceding flood; the remainder of the crew in charge of the head- 

 man or native sub-foreman, are placed at the several "bad places" 

 in the creek and at the rear, and all in readiness for the waters to 

 rise to log-floating stage. Torches are extinguished to save them 

 for the time of action. The "rise," if it comes at all, may last 

 for an hour, or possibly two, though rarely for five or six, but, 

 shorter or longer, there is no stopping of the work until the fall- 

 ing waters ground the logs on the bottom, there to remain in wait- 

 ing for another rainfall. The torch bearer's job is no sinecure. 

 Often he is up to his neck in water as the path crosses low places 

 or the mouths of small rivulets up which the back water from the 

 main stream sets far inland, and one hears the sizzle of a torch 

 suddenly extinguished as its bearer loses his footing, it may be 

 just when the non-swimmer is negotiating a pole, one that he him- 

 self had placed to serve as a bridge on just such an occasion as this 

 one, but now two feet under water. Should he scramble out on the 

 camp side of the bridge the chances are that he will make a sneak 

 and disappear in the darkness, depending on the nature of the 

 individual, or whether his boss is near enough to stop him. While 

 the work is in progress a drizzling rain is likely to be falling, and 

 soon the torch material becomes too damp to burn, though the 

 natives are very expert at keeping these alight under trying con- 

 ditions. When all have failed, the work must perforce come to a 

 standstill and, unless the catastrophe has been anticipated in time, 

 the crew may be left in places where they must wait for dawn of 

 day or a rescue party from camp to relieve them from captivity. 



It may be asked why obstacles are not removed before the work 

 of driving begins. To this it may be said that everything is cut 

 and cleared away as high from the bed of the creek as a man can 

 reach with his machete, the work necessarily being done in the 

 dry season, with little or no water running. The opening thus made 



