THE LeCLAIRE NAVIGATION COMPANY 131 



and there would be no waste. Everything was good 

 and nicely served and while he did not put on too many 

 dishes at any one meal, he gave us a good variety from 

 day to day. 



A good cook with a kind, cheerful disposition is a 

 great help to the captain; as he keeps the crew con- 

 tented and happy. But such cooks are rare, very rare. 



With the new engines a little larger than the old ones 

 we were pleased with our speed up stream and she was 

 easy on fuel. 



The river was high from LaCrosse up, as Black river 

 and Chippewa were both high. The big boats were 

 taking six brails of logs - in two pieces of three brails 

 each. We took four brails - in two pieces of two brails 

 each -which made a raft one hundred and eighty feet 

 wide and six hundred feet long, which was plenty for a 

 small boat on the high stage of water. 



I had never had much practice on running a raft. 

 My education and experience had been confined to 

 learning the river and to run a boat in it. To keep a 

 big, heavy, long raft in the channel and off the high 

 bars and heads of islands was something I had yet to 

 learn. 



Pilot Burrow was very helpful and on our first trip 

 he did all the most difficult work like Betsey Slough, 

 Raft channel. Bad Axe bend, Crooked Slough and 

 Santa Fe; besides the bridges at Winona, LaCrosse, 

 McGregor, Dubuque, Sabula, Clinton and Davenport. 



You don't run any two of these bridges the same way 

 and you can't run any one of them the same in all stages 

 of water. The tow is too heavy for the towboat to stop. 

 The current will carry it down though the boat may be 

 backing her best, so to get through a bridge without 

 injury you must start right and keep right. 



