46 REDWOOD LUMBERING. 



the ground solidly if it were attempted to make a clean cut- 

 ting at one time. In the heavily timbered districts at Trini- 

 dad, on Little, Mad, Elk, Van Duzen, and Eel rivers, as well 

 as on the creeks of Freshwater, Jacoby, Salomon, and Strong's, 

 in Humboldt County, an attempt to remove the standing 

 timber at one cutting would result in a loss of timber to 

 owners that would appear ridiculously great to the lumber- 

 men of Michigan, Wisconsin, and Canada. Three times cut- 

 ting over the same ground is not unusual in Humboldt and 

 Mendocino Counties, where the redwood grows in its greatest 

 luxuriance. It will be seen, therefore, that much depends 

 upon the good judgment of choppers in the operations of a 

 redwood lumberman. 



Following close upon the choppers' destruction of the 

 forests, come the "peelers." With an ax they cut through 

 the thick bark at distances apart that, in their judgment, will 

 make logs most easily handled in transporting them to mills. 

 Then, with long steel bars, flattened at one end, they 

 jointly drive them through the bark, and alternately pry the 

 thick covering from the tree, leaving a clear field for the next 

 in order in camp the man with the cross-cut saw. " Peel- 

 ers " command wages all the way from $50 to $60 per month 

 and board. 



The man with the cross-cut saw must also be of sound 

 judgment. It may be that at some point where the " peeler " 

 has marked a log to be sawed there is a hollow spot in the 

 ground beneath, or the tree rests upon two windfalls, leaving 

 an open gap between. The ends of the log that is to be cut 

 must be propped and wedged tightly, before he ventures to 



