SECRETARY'S REPORT. 157 



lumberers were in getting it in with their teams. lie found 

 some berths in the 1 tanks of the stream, where all that was 

 necessary was, to fell the tree so that it should fall directly 

 upon the water, and there cut it into logs to be ready for 

 running. 



•• When the streams are opened, and there is sufficient freshet 

 to float the timber, another gang, called ' river drivers,' takes 

 charge of it. It is their business to start it from the banks 

 and follow it down the river, clearing off what lodges against 

 rocks, pursuing and bringing back the sticks that run wild 

 among the bushes and trees that cover the low lands adjoining 

 the river, and breaking up jams that form in narrow or shallow 

 places. A jam is caused by obstacles in the river catching 

 some of the sticks, which in their turn catch others coming 

 down ; and so the mass increases until a solid dam is formed, 

 which entirely stops up the river and prevents the further 

 passage of any logs. These dams are most frequently formed 

 at the top of some fall ; and it is often a service that requires 

 much skill and boldness, and is attended with much danger, to 

 break them up. The persons who undertake it must go on to 

 the mass of logs, work some out with their pick poles, cut some 

 to pieces, attach ropes to others to be hauled out by the hands 

 on shore, and they must be on the alert to watch the moment 

 of the starting of the timber, and exercise all their activity to 

 get clear of it before they are carried off in its tumultuous 

 rush. 



" Some weeks, more or less, according to the distance, spent 

 in this way, bring the timber to the neighborhood of the saw- 

 mills. A short distance from Oldtown, on the Penobscot, there 

 is a boom established, extending across the river, for the pur- 

 pose of stopping all the logs that come down. It is made by 

 a floating chain of logs, connected by iron links, and supported 

 at suitable distances by solid piers built in the river; without 

 this it would be impossible to stop a large part of the logs, 

 and they would be carried on the freshet down the river and 

 out to sea. The boom is owned by an individual, who derives 

 a large profit from the boomage, which is thirty-five cents per 

 thousand on all logs coming into it. The boom cost the pres- 

 ent owner about $40,000. He has offered it for sale for 



