The Forest Industries 85 



are gathering-places of the " rough " element, is 

 very erroneous. " Roughs " do not hanker after 

 work of the character done in lumber camps. 

 Crimes are rare in these sections, and those which 

 occur are usually the result of bad whiskey. 



As soon as the ice in the rivers breaks up, the 

 business of sending the logs on their travels be- 

 gins. Of all the operations required in the prog- 

 ress of the pine tree to the consumer, this is the 

 one requiring the greatest hardiness in the work- 

 man. The river, to be sure, does the carrying of 

 the logs, but the latter have a persistent habit of 

 floating to the wrong places, getting stranded on 

 sand-bars or snags, running into sloughs, and in 

 various ways trying to escape from human control. 

 Consequently it is necessary for a crew to follow 

 the long-drawn procession of logs, or station them- 

 selves at the points known to be dangerous, and 

 with their long-handled hooks to keep the obsti- 

 nate ones in the main channel. In doing so it 

 is often necessary to jump from one floating log to 

 the other ; and notwithstanding the sharp, stout 

 spikes with which the boots are provided, to take 

 an involuntary bath in the icy water is "just as 

 easy as rolling off a log." The hardships and haz- 

 ards of this occupation reach their climax when a 

 " log jam " is formed, usually at one of the rapids 

 with which most logging rivers abound. Then it 

 becomes necessary, often at the immediate risk of 

 life, to break the jam by removing some of the 

 logs which by being stuck against the rocks hold 



