28 FOREST UTILIZATION 



lumber at a time and form a seaproof raft, pulled to the 

 mill by tugboats. 



II. Logs chained together in the form of a cigar-shaped raft 

 after various patterns have proven a failure. These 

 rafts were taken from the Oregon and Washington 

 coast to San Francisco, being launched like a steamboat 

 and towed by tugboats. To judge from newspaper re- 

 ports cigar-shaped rafts of boards have proven a suc- 

 cess. 

 The steamship companies consider cigar-shaped rafts a 



great danger to navigation. 



III. In carrying logs across the lakes in the Adirondacks and 

 Lake States, light ring booms are used. The logs are 

 placed in such booms at "the landing" and are rafted 

 (driven) to the outlet of the lake either by wind, cur- 

 rent or tugboat. 



X. TRANSPORTATION ON LAND WITH VEHICLES. 



A. Sleighs and sleds. 



I. Hand sleighs, home made, very light, are frequently used 

 abroad at grades of 10% and more. Man sits in front 

 of load and directs with legs and side brake. On steep 

 slopes such sleighs are used in summer as well. Fifty 

 cubic feet is an average load for one man. The work- 

 man carries his sleigh back uphill on his shoulders 

 for the next load. 



Sleighing roads for summer sleighing frequently have 

 cross ties at short intervals to be kept greased at slight 

 grades. 



II. The American sled has nothing in common with the 

 European sled. A team of horses is always used for 

 motive power. 



The sleigh, or sled, consists of two sets : 



The front set has a tongue of rock elm or oak and a 

 front roller in which the tongue is set. Runners are 7 

 feet to 9 feet long, 3 inches to 4 inches wide, shod with 

 ^4-inch steel shoes or cast iron shoes either below 

 only or both above and below ; they are either slightly 

 convex or flat. The front of the runner should be of a 

 natural curve or crook, not hewn. Material is white 

 oak. The cross beams, either ironed or plain, rest in 

 saddles or nose plates with knees. 



The "back roll" of the hind set is coupled to the front set 

 by chains attached to the center of the front cross 

 beam. There is no tongue to the hind set. 

 III. Log binders are used on loading chains to take about half 

 a foot of slack out of the chain, unless the same end is 

 secured by poles and the twisting of the binding chain. 



