128 TIMBER 
Up-to-date machinery is taken to the woods, if the 
stands are sufficiently extensive, and logging is here 
carried on under altogether advanced conditions. 
Roadways are made, metals are laid down for trucks and 
locomotives, and aerial wire transporters are largely used. 
Generally, the logs are converted into lumber, dressed, 
dried and prepared for market on the spot, the goods 
being transported to the nearest railway for conveyance 
to home markets or to the coast for shipment to other 
countries. ‘ 
In some districts of the country, however, where 
railway systems have not so fully developed, other 
methods of extraction are employed, and an interesting 
one that works a district on the Western slopes of the 
Rocky Mountains in California is worth noting. 
The timber from a large district on the steep sides 
of these mountains is brought down to mills near to 
points of exportation by means of what is known as a 
shute. The work of constructing this shute, or flume 
as it is sometimes called, is said to be a fine example of 
engineering skill, traversing, as it does, hill-sides, ravines, 
valleys, streams and other obstacles in its course, which, 
including side-branches, is 125 miles in length, and is... - 
still being continually extended. It is built of wood 
in the form of a trough which, starting at the top of 
the mountain, is carried in various directions convenient 
_ to the timber which has to be transported. The trough, 
or gutter, is laid at a varied gradient, and the logs are 
placed inside, water being turned in from a reservoir 
at the head of the shute. On this current the timber 
is transferred at a velocity which varies with the gradient, 
at. some places rushing along at 20 miles per hour. 
At various stations, chiefly where side-tracks join the 
main flume, men are stationed to prevent jams and to 
keep the course free of obstacles. To show the extent 
