LOGGING IlSr THE DOUGLAS FIR REGION. 129 



held taut. This keeps the carriage stationary. When the logs are 

 elevated sufficiently at one end to clear obstructions, the skidding 

 and return-line drums are interlocked and the skidding line drawn 

 in (the return line being simultaneously paid out) until the logs are 

 brought to the landing places, where they are dropped ready- to be 

 loaded on the cars. The operation of the drum is then reversed and 

 the carriage returned to the woods at high speed by the return line. 

 The operation is then repeated. 



Changing lines. — Two main cables are employed. While one is 

 being used in yarding, the rigging crew is at work getting the other 

 in place on the next run. When all the timber on one run has been 

 logged, the- main cable is dropped by the lifting and lowering drum 

 and taken out of the carriage. The other main cable, already 

 brought to place by the riggers, is placed in the carriage, connected, 

 and tightened up, the entire change of lines taking from 20 to 40 

 minutes. The rigging crew then delivers the main cable from the 

 old run to a new one. A light changing or straw line, provided for 

 the purpose, is drawn out by hand from the head spar tree on the 

 new run, up to and around the newly selected tail tree, and thence to 

 the tail tree that has just been deserted. The changing line is there 

 made fast to the main cable left lying on the ground on the run last 

 logged, and then, by means of a drum, drawn back to the head spar 

 tree, thus dragging the main cable entirely around the new tail tree 

 to a position between the head spar and tail tree on the new run, 

 ready to be connected up when required. 



Changing settings. — The manufacturers of the skidder state that 

 the change from one setting to another with the tree-rigged type 

 consumes .from two to six hours. An operator who is using one of 

 these machines stated that a change from one setting to another 

 could be made in from one-half to three-fourths of a day, provided 

 a double set of rigging is used ; that where a single set of rigging is 

 used, the time consumed in changing settings ranges from a day to 

 a day and a quarter. 



The loss of time in moving from one setting to another is not 

 considerable when compared with the loss of time in changing the 

 settings of ground yarding engines, since the skidder, as a rule, logs 

 more than twice as large an area at a setting as the ground yarding 

 engine. The skidding roads radiate around the head spar, and the 

 timber on both sides of the track is yarded at one setting of the 

 skidder. 



The time consumed in changing settings with the steel-spar type is, 

 -ox%'ourse, considerably^ smaller, ranging, it is said, from an hour and 

 a half to two hours. 



61361°— Bull. 711—18 9 



