FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



In fact, the case is quoted of one man 

 who could not sleep at home in his bed 

 on account of asthma, but who suffered 

 no inconvenience when working all day 

 in the water and sleeping under thin 

 blankets on the river shore. Upon 

 returning to his home after the drive 

 he immediately caught a violent cold. 

 However, it can not be claimed that 

 this work is really beneficial to the sys- 

 tem in the long run. Many old river 

 drivers suffer greatly from rheumatism 

 as an after effect of exposure in youth- 

 ful days. 



The boats and the wanigan go along 

 with the drive. The commissary, like 

 that of an army, is the most vital point 

 of the drive, and the cook and his help- 

 ers are kept very busy indeed. The 

 cook is the best-paid man in the com- 

 pany, excepting only the foreman, and 

 by virtue of his prerogatives is some- 

 what of a despot. Certainly the cook's 

 disposition and ability have much to do 

 with the success of any such campaign. 



During the drive four meals a day 

 are none too much for the ravenous 

 drivers, who eat heartily at 5 a. m., 

 again at 10, then at 2 p. m., and finally 

 at 8 in the evening. 



After the two o'clock meal the wani- 

 gan casts loose and navigates down- 

 stream as far as it is thought the men 

 can bring the drive that night. The 

 evening meal is ready on time, and the 

 wanigan lies moored to the bank, with 

 a lantern hung out to show the hungry 

 men which way to go if their keen 

 noses can not tell them. Do you know 

 just how good coffee can smell under 

 such circumstances ? 



They sleep ashore on beds of balsam 

 boughs, around great camp-fires, with 

 their wet clothing steaming where it 

 hangs at a safe distance from the heat. 

 Wet boots are kept carefully away from 

 the fire, for the least overheating ruins 

 a wet greased boot with marvelous 

 quickness. The leather fries into a 

 shriveled, brittle substance, which flies 

 into fragments at the first attempt to 

 force a foot inside it. 



Where the streams are large, or in 

 lake work, things are done a little dif- 

 ferently, and a floating bunk-house is 

 usually provided, which is much prefer- 



able to a couch among the rocks in the 

 rain. 



Wherever they sleep, they never know 

 at what hour of the night they may be 

 roused and sent out on the stream on 

 account of a sudden change in the vol- 

 ume of water running and the conse- 

 quent probability of a bad jam or other 

 trouble. Hours before daylight they 

 are afoot and on their way back to the 

 rear. They may be able to run it down 

 as far as the wanigan by breakfast time, 

 and an hour saved may mean all the 

 difference between success and failure 

 when a falling stream must be contended 

 with. 



Where the logs are hauled onto a lake 

 they are piled as compactly as possible, 

 and a great boom of logs, chained end to 

 end, is built around them. When the 

 ice goes out the boom is there to pre- 

 vent them from scattering and make 

 their handling less difficult. In the old 

 days a boom full of logs would be warped 

 along through a chain of lakes by carry- 

 ing an anchor far ahead and then haul- 

 ing the boom to the anchor by means of 

 a capstan mounted on a raft. Some- 

 times a sail was employed when the 

 wind favored. A more usual means 

 nowadays is to build a boom more than 

 long enough to reach across the lake at 

 its widest part. Beginning at the upper 

 end of the lake, one end of the boom is 

 fastened to a point on the shore and the 

 other end is dragged ahead along the 

 opposite shore by a small steam tug as 

 far as it will reach and fastened in turn. 

 The opposite end is then advanced sim- 

 ilarly, and in this manner all the logs 

 are swept through the lake. 



The logs of several companies may 

 become mingled, as on account of a jam 

 or hard luck one drive may overtake 

 another. This makes no difference, un- 

 less the crews take a dislike to each 

 other and make mischief. Otherwise 

 they will work together for the good of 

 all, and the logs are sorted out at the 

 end of the drive by means of the owners' 

 marks curious hieroglyphics cut in the 

 bark or stamped into the ends, or both. 



Unless the stream is unusually deep 

 and well adapted for driving, it has been 

 provided with a number of ' ' splash 

 dams," built of logs and hewn timbers, 



