THE DRIVE. 



HOW LUMBERMEN EMPLOY THE POWER OF 

 THE SPRING FRESHET, DAMS, AND DYNAMITE, 

 IN FLOATING THE FOREST CROP TO THE MILL. 



BY 



ROBERT V. R. REYNOLDS. 



AL/L through the winter months the 

 sturdy northern lumberjacks have 

 been at work hauling the logs from the 

 cuttings, and unloading them down upon 

 the frozen streams and lakes, and along 

 their banks. 



At the ' ' banking ' places on the 

 streams the sleds have left thousands of 

 tons of logs, which have been piled in 

 long rollways across the ice and upon 

 the banks as far as they could be con- 

 veniently handled by rolling them one 

 over another. On the banks themselves 

 for a long distance is a succession of 

 skids side by side, sloping toward the 

 water and piled high with logs. Barring 

 accidents, the entire cut of the earlv 



winter has been transported to the 

 waterways before the relaxing grip of 

 winter allows any serious damage to the 

 winter roads. 



A few days of inaction may intervene 

 between the last of the hauling and the 

 beginning of the drive. The horses 

 are sent out to the settled country 

 before the swamps become impassable, 

 pike-poles and peavies are repaired, 

 and the lower camps are redolent of 

 tallow as last j^ear's driving shoes are 

 searched out of winter storage, fitted with 

 their complement of spikes, and soft 

 ened with melted grease. Overalls are 

 'stagged," or cut off just below the 

 knee, and long woolen stockings worn. 



LOGS ON THE ICK, JUST BEFORE THE SPRING FRESHET. 



Through the courtesy of the Bureau of Forestry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, we are 

 enabled to present the accompanying illustrations. EDITOR. 



(in) 



