308 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 



saw. The logs in the ravines are all cut within a hundred 

 yards of the tram-way, to which they are dragged by oxen. 

 The logs once thrown into the slough, are made into rafts 

 from fifty to one hundred yards long, and from ten to forty feet 

 wide. The outer logs of the rafts are fastened to each other 

 at the ends, by a little chain with a tooth or dog at each end, 

 and one dog is driven into each log. There are then ropes 

 running across in several places to keep it from spreading out 

 in the middle. This is a very easy and simple method of mak- 

 ing a raft and the logs are not injured in the least. When the 

 raft is all complete, the lumbei-men get on it, and float with 

 the tide down to the mills, which are on the shore of the bay 

 near the mouth of the slough. The distance from the point 

 where the rafts are made to the mills, varies from three to 

 eight miles. When the tide turns, the raft is made fast to a 

 tree or stump on the shore, and the loggers wait until the ebb 

 commences again. Two tides will usually carry a raft to the 

 mill. Every mill has a boom or enclosure for logs. This en- 

 closure consists merely of large and long logs chained together 

 and floating on the surface of the water, of a small slough or 

 cove. When the raft arrives the boom is opened, the raft 

 pulled in and surveyed. The logs are generally cut by com- 

 panies of " loggers" who devote themselves to that business, 

 and sell their logs to the mills. The survey is made by a 

 surveyor, a public oflicer of the county, who is under bonds. 

 He receives ten cents per one thousand feet of lumber, board 

 measure, one-half to be paid by the loggers and one-half by 

 the mill. The thickness of the log is taken at the small end, 

 and one-fourth is thrown off" for waste. The large logs will 

 usually produce more lumber, and the small ones less than the 

 amount indicated by this mode of measurement. In some places 

 along the streams it is not convenient to make tram-ways, so the 

 logs are cut in the summer and are piled up on the bank until 

 the heavy rains of winter come, when there is enough water 

 to carry the logs down, and then they are thrown in. The 

 current carries them down to the slough, where the channel is 



