2l8 REPORT OF THE 



was reached. Then, when the water was released, the logs and timber 

 could be sluiced through very rapidly until the water in the lake was low- 

 ered to a certain point, when the dam should be closed. When the water 

 in the lake had again reached the specified height the sluicing could be 

 repeated until the timber that was to be delivered downstream was run 

 through, after which the water could be maintained at a steady level on 

 the lake above during the summer months, using the same dam for both 

 purposes. Thus the use of the proposed dam would not raise the water in 

 the lake any higher than the present dam. The logs would be driven by 

 temporarily lowering the VN-ater. The occasional lowering of the water 

 necessary to drive the logs should be over early in the spring, before tourist 

 travel had begun, and the lake could remain at its normal level throughout 

 the summer. These requirements can not be satisfactorily fulfilled by the 

 present dam, which evidently was intended only to maintain the water at 

 a suitable height to facilitate steamboat navigation on Raquette Lake, 

 Marion River, and South Inlet. The level of the water in Raquette Lake 

 is at present controlled entirely by the steamboat company. 



Steamboat navigation on the lake above would not be interfered with 

 by the adoption of the proposed method of regulating the use of water for 

 log driving. It would not be necessary to raise the water above the high 

 water mark on Raquette Lake, nor to cause any serious damage to property 

 on the shore. It would be necessary, however, to build a suitable dam at 

 the point shown and to remove the present combined bridge and dani, as 

 it is built at a point where the stream is wide and shallow and will not allow 

 the release of sufficient water to properly flush the stream for driving ]:)elow, 

 unless the planks which are set up against the upper side of the bridge for 

 the purpose of closing the dam are removed for a considerable distance 

 from along the present bridge front. When the water is at ordinary height, 

 there is not sufficient depth to carry timber through the present dam. And 

 when the high water of the spring freshets swells the stream to a proper 

 driving depth the logs would strike the bridge roadway stringers, for the 

 bottom of the bridge stringers is only 4~l feet above the top of the sluice, 

 and unless the water is just at a certain height, logs can not go through. 

 The stringers could, of course, be raised in the spring for the purpose of 

 sluicing logs, if there were no other objections to the present dam: but 

 this is only one of the minor reasons why it would not satisfactorily serve 

 the double purpose of driving logs or timber out of the lake in the spring 

 and maintaining the water at a steady level in summer. At the time the 



