NOTES ON THE EXTRACTION OF TIMBER 125 
the logs as they collect down the sluices and slides into 
the rapids below, so that no obstacle shall cause a jam. 
The work, especially in breaking up any jams that 
occasionally occur, is most arduous and risky, carried 
out as it is in strong-flowing streams at an icy tempera- 
ture. To see these men at work, jumping on and 
manipulating ice-covered logs in turbulent rapids and 
strong streams, is a sight worth going a long way ‘to 
see. It is an exhibition which shows a high development 
of nerve, skill, agility, and daring ; the risks are great, 
however, and many accidents occur that occasionally 
lead to fatal results. 
The winter-piled dumps are gradually cleared, and a 
general sweep up of the watercourse takes place after 
the great mass of the logs has gone down. Stray logs, 
hung up in bends and creeks, are diverted into their 
proper onward course, and by the commencement of 
summer the work is so far completed. 
The labour of felling the lumber in the winter, and 
the further handling of the logs in the icy Spring waters, 
is trying enough, but is preferable, if we can believe 
the stories of many who have had experience, to the 
work which is completed in the early months of the 
Summer, when the thermometer is said to rise even 
to 150 degrees above zero. The fly season then 
commences. According to the above authorities no 
mortal can adequately picture the systematic and 
methodical way in which these insects torment and 
make miserable the life of man. There are black-flies, 
sand-flies, deer-flies, and mosquitoes, and they work, 
day and night, with monotonous perseverance in their 
onslaughts. They appear to have some system in their 
assaults, the different species working in regular day 
and night-shifts, not in forcible frontal attacks, but in 
stealthy guerilla assaults which leave their victims 
