WHEKK THE Sl^UliTSMAX LOVES TO LlXGEll. Ill 



CHAPTER IX. 



FROM GIIAXI) LAKE HOME. 



The Enst Branch from (h-and Lake' to Bowliii Pitcli U 

 about as rough a piece of water as the average canoenian 

 eares to tackle, and when, in addition, you have a lot of 

 logs sailing on all sides, it is enough to give you a good 

 start for a sanitarium. There was no alternative for us 

 but to go on with the logs, for if we waited for the drive 

 to get througli to Grindstone tlie business of a certain New 

 York law office would come to a stop and the patients of a 

 Bangor dentist would l>e howling with pain. 



The telephone is a godsend to the river driver. Prior 

 to its use, Avlunievei' ther(^ was a jam there was no way of 

 stopping the oncoming logs or s(M-uring help except l)y the 

 slow information conv(\v(Ml by nuni on foot. We found 

 the telephone all along the East Branch. At all the falls, 

 rapids and sharp Ixmds in the river were telephone boxes 

 nailed to trees, with men nearby ready to notify those al)ove 

 of any jam below. 



The day ^ye selected to start from Grand Lake, on ac- 

 count of a jam furtlier down, they stopped sluicing, leaving 

 the river free of logs and affording us smooth sailing to 

 Stair Falls. At that point tliere is a cariw. As we neared 

 Haskell Bock we could see logs and troul)le ahead. They 

 were holding back the logs on account of the jam below. 



