6 LOWER PENINSULA. 



vital importance to the lumber business as mediums for the trans- 

 portation of felled timber, from otherwise almost inaccessible parts 

 of the interior, to ports or railroad stations. 



The greatest portion of our world-renowned stores of pine 

 timber would be comparatively worthless to the owners, and to the 

 community at large, without these rivers. Their importance can 

 only be fairly appreciated by one who has seen with his own eyes 

 the lumberman at work. In the fall of the year, hundreds of 

 axemen and teamsters, with horses and yokes of oxen, penetrate 

 for seventy and eighty miles up the rivers into forest desolation, 

 scarcely cutting a rough, narrow road, which seems impassable for 

 man or beast, yet by which, during their stay in the winter, the neces- 

 sary supplies are conveyed to them from time to time. Arrived at 

 the places with valuable timber, huts are erected, temporary stables 

 built for the animals, and the work begins. Tree after tree sinks 

 to the ground with its mighty crown under the pitiless strokes of 

 their axes. The valuable parts of the trunks are cut into logs of 

 proper length, and drawn on sleighs to the nearest creek, where 

 they are piled up, until, in spring-time, by the melting of the snow, 

 the creeks are swollen into impetuous streams, which are kept back 

 and hemmed in by dams. After the water has risen sufBciently, 

 the braces holding the logs on the banks are removed, when with 

 terrible speed, smashing every thing in their way, they dash 

 down into the muddy pond. This being done, the gates of 

 the dam are opened, and swiftly glide the logs along with the 

 rapid current, accompanied by a crew of men, who remove all ob- 

 structions, walking with surprising dexterity to and fro over the 

 floating logs. Finally they reach the mouths of the rivers, which 

 usually expand into lake-like basins, but are sometimes artificially 

 transformed into such. It often occurs that a river-bed for many 

 miles up its course is jammed with logs, representing several 

 square miles of forest, an interesting and curious sight. There 

 are the mills, erected only a few years since, surrounded by acres 

 of ground heaped with mountains of sawdust and other refuse ma- 

 terial, witnessing the stupendous amount of work performed. On 

 entering, what a humming, buzzing from all sides— a gigantic 

 beehive ; hundreds of persons at work in admirable order, making 

 use of the irresistible steam-power, in the most diversified way, 

 Mdthout a minute's loss of time, engine and men working in unison. 



