78 



In logging operations, as now conducted, engineering structures and 

 operations are constantly employed. 



Even the felling of such trees as the great western pines is a piece of 

 engineering requiring the greatest skill and judgment. The long shaft 

 must fall so as to clear the surrounding trees, and not destroy its own value 

 and that of others by crushing or lodging. Skidding is now in some forests 

 done by an engine and wire rope. First successfully applied in the cypress 

 swamps of the South, then on the mountains of the Pacific Coast with the 

 ponderous pines and firs, these steam skidding methods promise to super- 

 cede the old-fashioned horse and mule wherever large enough masses, es- 

 pecially of hardwoods, are to be lumbered, and where railroads can be pro- 

 fitably employed to bring the log harvest from the forest to the mill. 



TIMBER SLIDE, HIGH FALLS, MADAWASKA. 



Photo by Houghton W. Wilson. 



The present steam-skidding system, first suggested by Mr. J. H. Dick- 

 inson, relies upon a stationary hoisting engine, and brings the logs from 

 shorter or longer dstances to the cars by wire ropes running over drums, 

 the ropes being disposed in various ways according to the lay of the 

 ground. One of the essential devices is the cast steel nose or cone (Bap- 

 tist patent), which caps the log automatically when the rope is pulled taut, 

 and steers the log over any stumps, stones, or other impediments. 



