WHITE PINE. 43 



results upon the men who were skidding them into the river. There 

 were jams in the streams to be broken, and the work was perilous. 

 The men acquired skill in riding single logs down rapids, but some- 

 times the spiked shoes on which the rider depended failed at the 

 critical moment or from some other cause he lost his balance on the 

 whirling log and was thrown into the icy stream. He usually saved 

 himself, but not always. It was a remarkable fact that some men 

 who could not swim followed and took part in the log drives for 

 years, escaping from every peril, while good swimmers sometimes 

 lost their lives by drowning. 



Many large operators built steam log roads from the forest to the 

 mill, and did not depend upon the rivers to bring the logs down. 

 That arrangement was more dependable than the spring flood, though 

 less spectacular. Operations then went on the whole year through, 

 both at the woods and at the mill. The steam log loader lightened the 

 work of the cant -hook men by lifting the timber and placing it on 

 the car, and many other labor-saving devices were introduced during 

 the period wiien the bulk of the Lake States timber was going to 

 market. 



The decline in the output was as rapid as the rise. Year by year 

 vast tracts of white pine were cut out and left barren, and the lum- 

 bermen moved to new locations ; but the time finally arrived when no 

 extensive new tracts remained and the golden age of white-pine lum- 

 bering passed into history. 



SHIPBUILDING. 



White pine has entered extensively into shipbuilding in this coun- 

 try ever since the first yards were established. In 1668 this industry 

 had reached importance in New England, and by 1721 Massachusetts 

 alone was launching annually from 140 to 160 vessels. Vessels were 

 seldom or never made entirely of white pine, but for certain parts it 

 was unexcelled. It is weaker than the Riga pine, which was its chief 

 competitor one and two centuries ago, but it is lighter, and that was 

 an important consideration. Masts other than white pine were sel- 

 dom seen on New England ships. The wood was liable to quicker 

 decay than the Riga pine at points of intersection with other timbers 

 and below deck, but a preservative treatment was early put in prac- 

 tice. This consisted in boring holes in the tops of the masts and fill- 

 ing them with oil, which gradually penetrated downward, and it was 

 claimed for it that it prevented decay. Not only were pine masts, 

 yards, and bowsprits extensively used in American shipyards, but in 

 English yards as well. The Revolutionary War interrupted exporta- 

 tions, but by 1789 shipments were again crossing the Atlantic, and 

 houses in Scotland began to be finished in white pine. 1 



1 European Commerce, J. J. Oddy, London, 1805. 



