28 A RAFT PILOT'S LOG 



half miles per hour. A floating raft would have the 

 same speed if there were no wind, but it was very much 

 affected by even a light wind, and had to be tied up for 

 any moderate side or down-stream wind. Much time 

 was lost on this account, and even a short trip in dis- 

 tance often turned out to be a long one in time. One 

 windy spring. Captain Blow was six weeks from the 

 mouth of the "Wisconse" to "de Rapid," only one hun- 

 dred and fifty miles. 



The pilots wanted calm weather to run the rapids, 

 because it was impossible to tie up, in such strong cur- 

 rents, if there was much wind. A favorite place to wait 

 for daylight, or calm weather to run the Upper, or 

 Rock Island rapids, was under the bar, in front of Har- 

 vey Goldsmith's place, above LeClaire, Iowa. When 

 half a dozen rafts, with their crews of from twenty to 

 thirty men each, were held up here for a few days, with 

 nothing to do, they had high old times. 



In low water these rafts had to be cut up into several 

 sections and extra oars shipped up on each end and men 

 taken on, so the sections could be kept in the narrow, 

 crooked "steamboat channel," whereas in ordinary 

 stages of the water the whole raft could be run down 

 "raft-channel." 



This low-water work made good business for the 

 "rapids pilots" and "trippers" in LeClaire and Mon- 

 trose, who received four dollars for the fifteen mile trip 

 "bucking" an oar from LeClaire to Davenport, or from 

 Montrose to Keokuk. This was hard on the owner or 

 contractor though. 



I guess "bucking" an oar on a floating raft was the 

 best exercise to develop the lungs and all the muscles 

 that has yet been found. It certainly produced a strong, 

 husky lot of men. 



