THE MARVELOUS JOURNEY OF A DOUGLAS FIR LOG 



321 



versity was established in 1880 and is sending out 20 to 

 40 graduates yearly. 



The manufacture of wood pulp is a growing industry in 

 Japan. She now has 30 wood pulp mills and produces 

 annually 280,000 tons of chemical and mechanical pulp. 

 The consumption of pulp wood is about 400,000 cords 

 a year. Spruce and fir are mostly used as pulp woods 

 and are grown in Hokkaido and Sakhalin, the northern 

 islands of Japan. They are cut in winter, drawn by 

 horses on the snow and driven on the river in spring 

 and summer. Our company is cutting very close, to 

 insure the most intense utilization, leaving stumps no 



higher than one foot from the ground. The production 

 of pulp must be largely increased in future because the. 

 demand for paper is growing stronger each year but it 

 seems rather a hopeless situation because of the insuf- 

 ficient supply of wood. It is significant that Japan im- 

 ported 40,744 tons of chemical wood pulp from the 

 Pacific States and from British Columbia in 1919. 



The Oji Paper Company, with a capital of $25,000,000, 

 established in 1871, has 13 pulp and paper mills in various 

 sections of Japan and produces about 140,000 tons of 

 high and low grade papers annually. 



THE MARVELOUS JOURNEY OF A DOUGLAS FIR LOG 



BY FRANCIS DICKIE 



FOR many hundred years a few Douglas fir logs 

 which found their way into the sea after being 

 uprooted at the ocean's edge or on the banks of 

 rivers tributary to it, have been caught by ocean cur- 

 rents, far flowing and strange of direction, and carried 

 a distance of 

 some 6,000 

 miles to come 

 to rest at last 

 on one or an- 

 other of the 

 Gilbert Islands 

 in the South 

 Seas. In re- 

 centyears, 

 since the white 

 man began log- 

 ging operations 

 on the Pacific 

 Coast, the 

 number of logs 

 to make the 

 wonderful 

 journey has 

 been much 

 greater, due to 

 log booms on 

 their way to 

 the mills being 

 broken up by 



MODELS FROM WHICH THE CANOES ARE MADE 



Canoes are made by the Indian inhabitants of the Gilbert Islands in the South Seas from Pacific Coast 

 Douglas fir logs broken from booms by storms enroute to the mills and washed eventually upon the 

 shores of the Islands, six thousand miles away. 



spread quickly and all the people from inland came to 

 share in the good fortune. Never was Nature more un- 

 kind to a people than these Islanders, for they had no 

 stone to make tools. They overcame this difficulty, how- 

 ever, by taking the shell of a gigantic clam (tridacna 



gig as) , the 

 most remark- 

 able of its spe- 

 cies which in 

 some cases 

 weighs a ton, 

 and from it 

 made adzes, 

 knives and 

 chisels. WitJh 

 these the fir logs 

 were cut up 

 in thin strips. 

 These were 

 then shaped to 

 the form of 

 canoes some 12 

 to 15 feet long. 

 This wood was 

 sewn together 

 by thread tak- 

 en from husk 

 of cocoa nut 

 called coir ; 

 pandanus 



storms at sea. 



Truly never was stranger story told than the Odyssey 

 of these many logs crossing so vast a stretch of water, 

 for they came to places where they were most needed. 

 The Gilberts are low-lying coral atolls upon which grows 

 no timber suitable for making canoes. Thus since time 

 immemorial the islanders have gazed seaward daily with 

 anxious eye for the coming of fir logs. When a log or 

 logs was sighted great excitement reigned. The news 



leaves being 

 used for caulking. The canoes have only a two-foot beam, 

 and are very sharp. They would not be practical save for 

 the added outrigger which makes them very seaworthy. 

 In the photograph, figures 11 and 13 are two exact 

 models, even the coir string used in sewing may be 

 seen. These models were made by natives and brought 

 to Canada by a collector of canoe models from all 

 the world. 



