FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 245 



crank of the mill wheel. This wooden beam was called a pitman, and is known by 

 that name to-day in every sawmill throughout the country. Our amateur philolo- 

 gists will not have much trouble in guessing the derivation of the word. 



But pit-sawing, or " whip-sawing," as sometimes called, was not entirely aban- 

 doned on the introduction of sawmills.* This old method was still useful in saw- 

 ing " long stuff," because in many mills the log carriage was not long enough to saw 

 planks of the desired length. The writer remembers seeing two men as late as i860 

 pit-sawing at the Gang Mills, near Painted Post, Steuben County, N. Y. The large, 

 square stick of timber, which rested on high trestles, was being sawed into long 

 planks for the sides of a canal boat. The man underneath — the human pitman — 

 had a handkerchief tied over his head to keep the sawdust out of his eyes. 



Tl)e First I^ctmber 3l)ipments. 



The lumbermen of New Amsterdam colony were not confined to the home 

 market afforded by their fast growing town. They shipped part of their product 

 to England ; for, as already stated, there were at that time no sawmills in Great 

 Britain, all of the lumber in that country being brought from Holland, or made 

 by hand-sawyers at home. In fact, the colonists had sent some lumber to Holland 

 in 1626, three years after the first ship load of emigrants arrived. At first, it was 

 their only article of export besides furs. This consignment in 1626 consisted of 

 " considerable oak timber and hickory," and was sent over in the good ship Arms of 

 Amsterdam. In 1675 the ship Castle carried a cargo of timber valued at .^400 



from New York to England. In 1686 Governor Dongan, in a report to the home 

 government, offered to " send over boards of what dimensions you please," adding 

 that " three-inch planks for the batteries cost me fifteen shillings the hundred 

 feet." Surely, the lumbermen of New York belong to an honorable as well as 

 ancient guild. 



For the hundred years next after the founding of the colonies at New Amster- 

 dam and Fort Orange (Albany) the settlement of the State was confined to the 

 region of the Hudson and Mohawk valleys. The development of the country and 

 the growth of the lumber industry were slow as compared with that which succeeded 

 the Revolution and the establishment of the State as a member of the new republic. 

 There being no means of transportation except in the river districts, the lumber- 



*In 1804. James Perkins built the first framed house in the town of Conquest, Cayuga County, saw- 

 ing out all the lumber with a whip saw. 



