POWER SKIDDING 
215 
transportation which is of sj^ccial im]:)ortance in regions of rough 
topography where grade construction is (mostly. 
The cableway system is especially adapted for logging in 
swampy regions where the bottom is too soft for animals ; in very 
brushy sections; on stee}) and rocky slopes; in taking timber 
across canyons and gorges, or in bringing it up out of a canyon to 
a plateau or lowering it into a valley; and in handling dense stands 
Fig. 62. — A Steel-spar Cableway Skidder operating in Southern Yellow 
Pine. The loading boom is shown at the left. Texas. 
of small- or medium-sized timber, especially when the physical 
conditions render ground systems difficult and expensive to 
operate. It is operated to best advantage when the topog- 
raphy is such that logging railroads can be laid out at regular 
intervals, but it is also used in very rough regions where the 
railroad must be placed in the valley or at the head of the slope. 
Lidgerwood System. — The pioneer overhead system was the 
Lidgerwood which is the type used chiefly in the East. Western 
loggers use this method but they also have developed numerous 
others. This type is built both for short-distance and for long- 
distance skidding, and may use a tree for a head spar or a steel 
