258 " REPORT OF THE 



St. Regis — West Branch, 1854 



" East Branch, -- i86o 



West Canada Creek, --.. 1854 



Oswegatchie River, - 1854 



Sacandaga River, -----...-... 1854 



Great Chazy River, ..-...-... 1857 



Deer River, ............ 1867 



After the merchantable timber along the main rivers had been cut, the lumber- 

 men turned their attention to the more remote and inaccessible tracts on moun- 

 tain slopes, where the streams were narrow, rocky and rapid. Then commenced the 

 erection of " splash " or " flooding " dams, which were used to drive the logs out of 

 the small streams, on the temporary, artificial floods caused by opening the gates; 

 and, also, to reinforce the subsiding waters of the main streams. 



These flooding dams seldom did any damage to standing timber, because the 

 ponds were always drawn down in the early spring when water was needed for log 

 driving, the gates being left open until the next winter. There was no backflow 

 during the period of vegetation ; and the temporary flooding of the roots of trees 

 does not kill the timber. Trees are killed by water only where it is allowed to 

 cover the ground for two or more successive summers. 



There is a general impression, however, to the contrary ; and it is commonly 

 believed that the lumbermen with their flooding dams are responsible for the killing 

 of live timber and the destruction of forest scenery. But, in nearly every instance, 

 the dead timber in the flowed lands of the Adirondacks is the result of some dam or 

 reservoir which was built in the interest of State canals, local steamboat lines or 

 manufactories on the lower waters. The lumbermen had little or nothing to do 

 with them. 



In the southern and western portions of New York the lumbermen rarely built 

 these small flooding dams to assist them in their river driving. The country was 

 not so mountainous; the streams were not so rapid or violent as in the Adirondack 

 forests ; the spring floods held up longer by reason of a less rapid flow ; the log 

 driving was easier in every respect. 



I^og" Drivers and Tl)eir Worl^. 



The beginning of log driving was coincident with the sudden increase in the 

 development of the country at the commencement of the last century. As there 

 were no canals or railroads, and as logs could no longer be supplied under the former 

 primitive methods of hauling from the forest to the mill, some such method became 

 necessary owing to the corresponding demands for lumber. The haul had become 



