THE USES OF WOOD 



979 



has become the canal boat and the river barge of the 

 present time. It always was and still is a slow and slug- 

 gish traveler and a carrier of heavy burdens. By building 

 on it a superstructure, it becomes a houseboat, and many 

 a one has assumed the dignity of a moving human resi- 

 dence. Such boats played a leading part in the "westward 

 movement." Emigrants and homeseekers who "went 



ONCE WAS IMPORTANT IN BOAT BUILDING 



This is a balsam fir. It is not now of any special importance in the boat 

 business, but it was the source of the balsam with which the Indian 

 ped the leaks in his frail vessels and made them service- 

 able. When Hiawatha made his canoe he "took the tears of balsam" and 

 made it waterproof, as Longfellow tells the story. 



west" four or 

 five generations 

 ago built or 

 bought such 

 boats on the 

 banks of the 

 Ohio, Missis- 

 sippi, Tennes- 

 see, Mononga- 

 hela, and other 

 rivers, and 

 floated with the 

 curre nts ; or 

 poled or pad- 

 dled ; or pulled 

 or pushed their 

 boats against 

 the currents, 

 and in that way 

 worked slowly 

 and coura- 

 geously toward 

 the land of 

 promise. Their 

 boats were of 

 wood, u s ually 

 to the last peg 

 and treenail ; 

 and with broad- 

 axes, poleaxes, 

 crosscut saws, 

 whipsaws, aug- 

 ers, and adzes, 

 the boats were 

 built of oak, 

 yellow poplar, 

 black walnut, 

 c y p r ess, and 

 pine, before 

 sawmills and 

 shipyards made 

 their appear- 

 a n c e beyond 

 the frontiers. 



The trade 

 boats intended 

 for upstream 

 travel were 

 usually known 

 as k e e lboats, 

 and they were 

 very important 

 on western rivers in the period intervening between the 

 canoe and the steamboat. Keelboats were propelled by 

 men with poles, and were made of any convenient wood, 

 but yellow poplar and black walnut predominated on the 

 Ohio River. 



Pittsburgh was a noted point for traffic boats in early 

 times, as it still is. Eastern adventurers gathered there 



SUPERFINE SHIP MATERIAL 



.^proximately a half a trillion feet of Douglas fir 

 yet remain ill the forests, according to the best esti- 

 mates. No scarcity of ship material in the near 

 f'ture need be feared. Groups of trees like these in 

 the above picture explain how it is possible for a 

 single tree specie to produce such extraordinary 

 amounts of timber. Photograph by the Kent Lum- 

 ber Company, Seattle, Washington. 



