40 CRUISIXGS IN THE CASCADES 



placed a ladder against the wall by which to go up- 

 and down. On the floor he built a stone fireplace, 

 and from it to the knot hole above a stick and clay 

 chimney. He lived lips' airs and kept his horse and 

 cow downstairs. It may be well to explain that he 

 was a bachelor, and thus save the reader any anxiety 

 as to how his wife and children liked the situation. 



The " Sumas Sapling" stands near Sumas Lake,, 

 northeast of Seattle. It is a hollow cedar, twenty- 

 three feet in the clear, on the ground, and is esti- 

 mated to be fifteen feet in diameter twenty feet 

 above the ground. I have, in several instances, 

 counted more than a hundred of these mammoth 

 trees on an acre of land, and am informed that 

 one tract has been cut off that yielded over 1,000,000 

 feet of lumber per acre. In this case tlie trees stood 

 so close together that many of the stumps had to be 

 dug out, after the trees had been felled, before the 

 logs could be gotten out. The system of logging in 

 vogue here differs widely from that practiced in 

 Wisconsin, Michigan, Maine, and elsewhere. No 

 snow or ice are required here, and, in fact, if snow 

 falls to any considerable depth while crews are in 

 the woods a halt is called until it goes off. 



Corduroy roads are built into the timber as fast 

 as required, on which the teams travel, so that it is not 

 necessary that the ground should be even frozen. 

 Skids, twelve to eighteen inches thick, are laid across 

 these roads, about nine feet apart, and sunk into the 

 ground so as to project about six inches above the 

 surface ; the bark is peeled off the top, they are kept 

 greased, and the logs are ' l snaked ' ' over them with 

 four to seven yoke of cattle, as may be required.. 



