IN THE LUMBER WOODS 223 



The river becomes one swirling fighting mass of logs. Great tree 

 trunks, tossed and pitched about like tiny corks in countless num- 

 bers, float down with fearful velocity on the rushing current. At 

 times the endless rush of the logs becomes partially blocked, and 

 for awhile below there is a clear waterway. Towards this mass 

 of blocked timber some huge log comes end on, and slashes its 

 path out, knocking the smaller logs to right and left. Then it too 

 brings up broadside against the ' jam'. A mightier than it comes 

 charging along end on. There is a crash. The huge trunk is 

 flirted half out of the water. Proudly on its course, carrying with 

 it a number of lesser logs set free by the collision, the massive 

 trunk sails majestically down river. So the unruly pack go full 

 cry for the mills, fighting and snarling, on their troubled pathway. 



The novice might imagine that once launched on the torrent the 

 logs would find their way down the hundred or more miles of river 

 to the steam-mills, where the timber is cut up into ' deals ' and 

 boards, and loaded on sailing-ships for export. Could he once 

 see the rapid and shallow parts of the river where the logs have 

 to run the gauntlets of innumerable obstacles and falls : where 

 the flood sometimes breaks itself against submerged rocks with 

 the fury of a tropical water-spout, he would see the necessity for 

 the services of the hardy gangs of ' drivers ' to shepherd such an 

 unruly flock. Without the drivers scarcely a log would reach 

 its destination. 



Sometimes the obstructed logs accumulate in vast piles called 

 ' jams '. These the drivers must release even at the peril of their 

 lives. A log sometimes drifts up against a sunken rock and turns 

 sidelong to the stream, catching all the others coming along. The 

 ' key ' log must then be moved at all hazards. 



Then again in stretches of still water (or ' dead water', as they 

 are called), the logs often become dispersed over miles of surface 

 and are thrown up on the shores by the action of winds and freshets. 

 The drivers must pick up each log and restore it to the highway. 

 The lumber also is frequently thrown ashore when the river is 

 rising rapidly from heavy rains, for at such times the pitch of water 

 is considerably higher in the middle of the river than at the shores. 



When a river passes through a lake on its passage seaward, 

 as often happens, the timber has to be ' rounded up '. That means 

 it has to be enclosed by a ' boom ' or fence of floating logs. This 

 timber island has to be towed across the lake by means of a windlass 

 erected on an anchored barge. This operation is slowly and 

 laboriously repeated till the huge collection of logs is wafted safely 

 across to the lower end of the lake. 



I once witnessed an imposing ' jam ' of logs on the Nepisiquit 



