FLOATING AND RAFTING 
413 
Floating ability 
Average floating 
Floating ability 
above the average 
ability 
below the average 
Spruce 
Yellow pine 
Oak 
White pine 
Sweet gum 
Hickory 
Hemlock (dry) 
Sycamore 
Birch 
Basswood 
Douglas fir 
Beech 
Poplar 
Chestnut 
Elm 
White cedar 
Ash 
Redwood (except butts) 
Cherry 
Balsam 
Redwood (butts) 
Larch (except butts) 
Larch (butts) 
Cypress 
Cucumber 
C. LABOR 
Labor employed on log drives is chiefly recruited from the 
logging camps which have ceased operations by the time the 
streams are in condition to float timber. Although the work is 
hard, the hours are long and the men are often exposed to many 
hardships in the pursuit of their work, there is a certain glamour 
and fascination about it which attracts forest workers and in 
normal times loggers seldom have difficulty in securing a sufficient 
number of men. 
The laborers in the Northeastern part of the United States are 
chiefly French Canadians who make admirable river drivers. 
Log driving on small streams is done chiefly from the banks, 
except where log jams occur, while on large streams the work 
must often be done from boats called bateaux^ or from the logs 
themselves. The river drivers are often subject to personal 
danger in freeing lodged logs and in breaking up jams which 
form at narrow points in the stream, or in places where the 
channel is obstructed by rocks. A ''key log" around which a 
jam is formed must be freed before the mass can be started, 
and this may be done either with tools or by a charge of dyna- 
mite. Only the most skilKul men are allowed to perform this 
work, because great presence of mind is required on the part of 
the driver when the logs start to move. Log drivers, espe- 
cially on rough water, are among the highest paid men in the 
^ These are strongly built boats with a sharp prow and are fitted with two 
pairs of oars and guided by a single oar used as a rudder. They have a capacity 
of from six to ten men. 
