WHITE PINE. 41 



head winds, until the current of the outflow caught them and carried 

 them upon their journey. 



The log drives and the rafting in the State of New York were 

 small in comparison with those upon the rivers which flowed south 

 through Pennsylvania that is, the Delaware, the Susquehanna, and 

 the Allegheny. The pine forests on the heads of those streams sup- 

 plied large operators for many years. The Delaware was earliest in 

 point of time, and Philadelphia Avas the chief market. The Susque- 

 hanna followed, with its sources in the great pine forests of New 

 York and Northern Pennsylvania. Many of the head streams were 

 too small and rough for rafting, and the logs were driven out on the 

 crests of floods or by the aid of splash dams. These were built to 

 impound the water and create artificial floods from time to time by 

 opening the gates. When the logs had been carried to the larger 

 streams they were either sawed into lumber or were collected in 

 rafts to be sent farther down. The Susquehanna was regarded as a 

 more difficult and dangerous stream than either the Delaware or the 

 Allegheny. It had more rapids, more dams, sharper bends, swifter 

 currents, and called for more skill and alertness on the part of rafts- 

 men. The rivermen looked upon themselves as professionals, and 

 were proud of their calling. Rafts usually floated 40 to 50 miles a 

 day, and at night were tied to trees on the banks. Instances are on 

 record of rafts from far up the Susquehanna which passed the length 

 of the river and floated down Chesapeake Bay to Norfolk, Va., where 

 the lumber reached a market. The passage down the bay was made 

 with the assistance of the towing tugs. 



The white pine forests of New York and Pennsylvania ended at 

 Lake Ontario and Lake Erie, but beyond these lakes, in Canada and 

 farther on in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, they continued 

 almost unbroken for hundreds of miles, wherever there was land. 

 In that region of the lakes the largest and last of the primeval white 

 pine forests of this country stood and there was carried on a system 

 of lumbering which was in many ways unique and peculiar, with 

 nothing else like it in our forest history. All the accumulated expe- 

 rience gained in 200 years among the pineries of New England, New 

 York, and Pennsylvania was carried to Michigan, and was there 

 turned to account in harvesting the vast timber wealth of that region. 



Early lumbering there was on a small scale, as in other parts of 

 the country, but when the demand came for the clear, soft pine of 

 Michigan lumbermen were ready to provide it. Land was cheap, 

 and for all practical purposes it seemed limitless. It was easy to 

 acquire and passed rapidly into the hands of private owners or cor- 

 porations. Cruisers, popularly known as " landlookers," were sent 

 into the woods to locate choice tracts, which were bought up by capi- 

 talists. When a body of timber of sufficient extent was secured a 



