104 OBSERVATIONS ON A SALMON RIVER 



farther into the mountains, singling out and 

 felling the sound sticks ; thus it happens that 

 all the more robust and stately trees fall vic- 

 tims to the axe and are converted into " saw 

 logs." If a tree is sound and clean, down it 

 comes, with the result that only the unsound 

 and immature trees survive. 



The marketable trees are thrown while 

 the snow is on the ground, and the stems 

 are rolled down the hillside to the nearest 

 stream. When the snow melts and the 

 spring floods come, they are carried auto- 

 matically down the rivers until they reach 

 the depots, where they are collected behind 

 a floating boom, like sheep in a pen, and re- 

 main until such time as they can be dragged 

 on an endless chain to the sawmill, where 

 they are rapidly converted into " deals." 



But while the bulk of the logs are thus 

 hurried rapidly to their destination, many 

 stick fast on the sandbanks or in the eddies, 

 where they sail round and round hopelessly, 

 and eventually take anchor. Quite a num- 

 ber of logs are thus intercepted. These are 



