LOGGING IN" THE DOUGLAS FIR REGION. 
151 
haul the load. Whenever the load starts to travel faster than the 
line, the jaws are released, permitting the grip to slide along on the 
hauling line. Because of this the lines are not snarled and blocks 
are not torn down, neither is there the amount of line breakage that 
would occur under other conditions, since when the load slows down 
the grip takes hold gradually, the result being that the load does not 
stop. This continuous movement of the load could not be secured 
if the load were fixed rigidly to the line or if the load were attached 
to the line with a sliding ring, which would be engaged by a " bull 
ring " on the end of the line when the load was picked up. 
(b) Another device (fig. 58) is 
used with an endless line to snub 
logs down steep chutes. The end- 
less line is wound around the two 
42-inch drums — one grooved for 
four turns, the other for five — 
four times in the form of a figure 
" 8." It is operated by means of 
one lever, which keeps the line 
from slipping and enables the two 
brakes to hold the line in control 
on any grade. Two rings are fas- 
tened to the snubbing line, which 
is strung along the road, one at 
the machine, the other at the tail block at the bottom of the hill. One 
company used this device to lower logs a drop of 500 feet in one-half 
mile, some of the grades .being nearly 40 per cent. The logs were 
hauled over a pole road by a road engine for a distance of 1 mile, the 
turns averaging six logs. At the head of the sharp incline the turn 
was stopped opposite the snubbing machine and fastened to the snub- 
bing line. A man took his place at the brake of the snubbing ma- 
chine, the signal was given, and the road engine started the turn 
down the chute, the man at the machine regulating its speed down 
the hill and stopping it at the bottom. The machine costs about $600. 
Several other types of snubbing machine are used. Figure 59 
shows the method of using a compressed-air snubbing machine. 
Fig. 58. — Snubbing device. 
IMPKOVEMENTS. 
The improvements in the main consist of pole roads or chutes, 
which, in short, are troughs formed by laying two or more strings 
of logs side by side on the ground or on sills. These require a right 
of way from 12 to 14 feet wide, which is swamped out carefully and 
graded to avoid abrupt changes. It is better to make cuts than 
fills, since a more solid foundation is thus secured. 
