THE WORLD'S ADVANCE 



283 



heavily wooded, but the grade of fifty 

 degrees makes ordinary sawmilling ma- 

 chinery useless because of the lack of 

 level resting places. 



It was suggested to the consul that 

 possibly an auger, portable by hand, 

 which could bore holes through a trunk 

 radially with an electric motor, working 

 automatically or by hand control, would 

 be just the kind of appliance which would 

 be very useful. The tool should be of 

 sufficient strength and stiffness and be 

 a sort of screw auger, able to clear 



about ninety to 'One hundred miles as the 

 crow flies, but -as the old Morris and Es- 

 sex Canal runs it may be anywhere from 

 one hundred to one hundred and fifty 

 miles. To make this comparatively short 

 trip, however, the canal boats must climb 

 nearly a thousand feet above the sea 

 level. 



Locks are not sufficient to raise the 

 boats quickly to the great elevation at- 

 tained by the canal, so the boats crawl 

 out of the water at several places and 

 take to the railways. The inclined rail- 

 ^^^^^^^^^ ways are simply 

 tracks laid at steep 

 places, with a cradle 

 at one end for the 

 boats 'and a long cable, 

 operated by power 

 generated by the canal 

 water, running from 

 the top to the bottom. 

 The cradle slips into 

 the canal and the boat 



Two Views of a Railway 

 for Carrying Canal 

 Boats Up a Mountain- 

 side. The Canal Boats 

 Float Into a Cradle 

 Mounted on Wheels and 

 Are Then Hauled Up the 

 Incline by Means of 

 a Cable. 



itself after boring the desired holes. 

 If the timber could once be felled it 

 could easily be lowered .down the moun- 

 tain slope to rivers or to any sawmills in 

 level spaces below. 



A CANAL BOAT ON RAILS 



The canal boat which climbs moun- 

 tains to an elevation of a thousand feet 

 and then crawls down to water level 

 again is not a freak but just an ordinary, 

 every-day craft that is engaged in car- 

 rying coal across the State of New Jersey 

 to tide water. From the Delaware River 

 to the Atlantic seaboard is a matter of 



floats into it. Then the two are hauled 

 up to a higher level, and the boat once 

 more resumes its journey by water. At 

 one point on the Morris Canal there is a 

 series of half a dozen of these inclined 

 railways, and the canal boats climb sev- 

 eral hundred feet over land in a short 

 time. Everything is hauled up except the 

 mule. He makes the climb on foot, and 

 comes out on the tow path ready for 

 another long, lazy pull. The canal boat- 

 men usually take advantage of the op- 

 portunity when their boats are in the 

 cradle to repair leaks and clean off the 

 bottom. It is the only dry dock that the 

 canal boats ever see. 



