FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSION. 263 



Loren Ellis Q_ 

 Thomas & Hammond T 



Patrick Hanlon OO 

 D. H. & W. Parsons J^ 



As these firms went out of business from time to time, their marks were used 

 by other lumbermen, the original owners having no further use for them. 



To reprint here all the marks used on the many logging streams of New York 

 would occupy too much space. The ones shown here will give some idea of what 

 constitutes a good log mark. The characters were usually about an inch and a 

 quarter in length or width. In some instances numerals were used. Jones Ordway, 

 one of the pioneer lumbermen of Northern New York, stamped his logs with a 34 ; 

 and Harris, Finch & Co. used a 15. 



The river drivers and men at the sorting booms had their own names for the 

 various log marks, designations which were suggested by some real or fancied resem- 

 blance. Hence, in speaking of log marks we hear the river drivers use the names 

 crow's foot, double O, wine cup, triangle, hawk eye, devil's head, deer's foot, etc. 



In making the design for a mark care was taken to select one that would be 

 quickly recognized as the log passed through the opening at the sorting boom ; and 

 the man who used the marking hammer always hit the end of a log in several 

 places so that whatever side might be up as it floated, some one of the marks would 

 be in sight. These marks were also of use in the mill yard or piling ground, as 

 showing the job or firm to which a pile of lumber belonged, a part or all of the 

 stamp showing here and there on the ends of a board or plank. 



I/og nailroads. 



But with railroads, logging cars, steam log loaders and jack-works for lifting logs 

 from a lake or stream onto the cars, lumbermen are no longer dependent on river 

 driving in order to get their stock to the mill. A railroad has the great advantage 

 of being available any month of the year. The mill does not have to shut down 

 in a dry season for lack of stock. There is no loss by having a drive "hung up" 

 for many months, the logs decaying or deteriorating in the meantime. With the 

 railroad the stock is brought to the mill in perfect condition — no faster than 

 wanted, but just as fast as it is wanted. 



The first railroad for hauling logs was built in i860 by Fox, Weston & Bronson, 

 ill the town of Lindley, Steuben county, N. Y. It was constructed of wooden rails, 



