OTHER BRANCHES OE INDUSTRY. 309 



wide and the current more moderate, and there they are 

 caught by a boom, which is made by driving a heavy pile into 

 the bank on each side, and chaining a large and long log to it. 

 These two logs are chained together at their lower ends, and 

 thus hold all the logs coming down from above. The boom 

 logs may be three or four feet in diameter, and seventy-five feet 

 in length. A little stream, a foot deep and three feet wide in 

 the summer, will increase its volume of water a hundred-fold 

 in winter, and carry down logs ten feet in diameter. Such a 

 brook often supplies five million feet (board measure) of logs 

 in a season. 



There is no place in the world where the average thickness 

 of the logs sawn in the saw-mills, is so large as in Humboldt 

 county, and the mills are built with special reference to the 

 size of the logs. The frames are made very large and strong, 

 and the saws are of proportionate length. The i>aws used in 

 the mills are of four kinds : the single-gate saw, the gang-saws 

 in a gate, the muley-saw, and the circular saw. The single- 

 gate saw is fastened in a frame or gate, which plays up and 

 down. This saw is used for sawing small logs, and is not 

 found in very large mills. The gang-saws are a set of saws 

 fastened in a frame parallel to each other. In some gangs 

 there are twenty-four saws side by side, and they cut a log 

 mto boards at one movement. The gang-saws move slowly and 

 make smooth lumber. All the boards, plank, joists, rafters, 

 and studding, are cut with gang-saws. The largest legs cut 

 with gang-saws are not more than three feet and a half through. 

 The muley-saw is an upright saw, which is fastened at the 

 lower end to a shaft connecting with the steam-engine or 

 water-power, and the upper end is loose, though it plays in a 

 groove to keep it straight. The muley is used for cutting the 

 largest logs into bolts, and taking ofi" slabs, so as to reduce 

 the logs to a size suitable for other saws to work upon. The 

 muley-saw makes three hundred strokes in a minute, whereas 

 the gate-saw makes only about one hundi-ed. The gate of 

 a gate-saw large enough to saw logs nine feet in diameter, 



