WEST VffiGINIA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



57 



chemicals are sometimes employed. Fire lines are frequently 

 kept up as barriers, and roads, trails, and streams are used as 

 places of attack. 



THE LUMBER INDUSTRY. 

 Types of Saw Mills. 



There have been three general types of saw mills used in 

 West Virginia. These are the sash, or up-and-down, mill, oper- 

 ated by water-power; the portable mill, using a circular saw 

 and operated by steam; and the stationary band saw mill. All 

 of these have had various modifications. The "muley saw" 

 was only slightly different from the ordinary sash saw, but with 

 a faster stroke. Portable saw mills of almost every description 

 have been used — some with heavy machinery and a capacity of 

 from 10 to 15 thousand feet per day, and some with parts so 

 light that they could be hauled over the steepest mountain 

 roads. The band mills are provided with one, two, or even 

 three band saws; some have double-cut bands, some have pony 

 saws, some have re-saws^ others gang saws, and so on. 



A rude, hand-operated device known as a whip saw, was 

 used in an early day before and with the sash saw. The con- 

 trivance is thus described in Kercheval's History of the Yslley 

 of Virginia: 



"The whip saw was about the length of the common mill 

 saw (referring to the sash saw used in water mills) with a 

 handle at each end transversely fixed to it. The timber intend- 

 ed to be sawed was first squared with the broad axe, and then 

 raised on a scaffold six or seven feet high. Two able-bodied 

 men then took hold of the saw, one standing on top of the log 

 and the other under it. ' ' The author of this history adds fur- 

 ther on — "The labo.r was excessively fatiguing, and about 100 

 feet of plank or scantling was considered a good day's work for 

 two hands." 



These saws have long gone out of use in most parts of West 

 Virginia. It is stated, however, that they have been employed 

 to some extent in the sparsely settled districts of our southern 

 counties within the last five years. 



