CHAPTER XXIII 



FLUMES AND LOG SLUICES 



Log and lumber flumes, and log sluices are built to transport 

 lumber, crossties, shingle bolts, acid wood, cordwood, pulp- 

 wood, mine timbers and saw logs from the forest to mills, rail- 

 roads or driveable streams, and to carry products from the 

 mill to market, or to rail transport. They are used to a Hmited 

 extent in every forest region, but are especially serviceable 

 where stream transportation is not available and when the 

 topography renders railroad construction costly. They are most 

 commonly employed for handling sawed products, although they 

 are now being used in some parts of the West for transporting 

 mine timbers and saw logs. 



They have several advantages over logging railroads in a 

 rough region: (i) they can be carried over inequahties in the 

 ground, or across gulches on fairly light trestles; (2) they can 

 be operated on steeper grades; (3) they occupy less space than 

 a railroad and hence require smaller cuts and tunnels and can 

 often be located in narrow canyons where there is not sufficient 

 room for a railroad. 



The disadvantages are: (i) the transport of crooked and 

 long logs is difficult and costly; (2) the light construction ren- 

 ders them more subject than railroads to damage by windstorms, 

 fires, floods, falling timber and other natural agencies, although 

 they can be repaired more cheaply; (3) they usuaUy offer no 

 means of transporting supplies from the railroad to the miU or 

 forest; however, in one instance the edges of the flume box were 

 used as a track over which railroad speeders were run, thus 

 affording ready communication between the two ends of the 

 flume; (4) the transport of lumber roughens the surface of 

 planed material and also batters the ends of the boards which 

 have to be trimmed after leaving the water so that planing mill 



