FLOATING AND RAFTING 431 
sunken logs remains with the original owners. Where several 
hundred marks and brands have been used on a stream, it is 
almost hopeless for a company to attempt to secure title to all 
the logs raised because many of the owners of given brands 
and marks are deceased or have left the region. In addition 
the log raiser must reckon with riparian owners which is a further 
drawback to the work.^ 
There have been numerous methods used in raising logs, 
some of which have been patented. On shallow streams and 
on lakes the practice once existed of raising the logs by various 
means, towing them to the bank where they were stored until 
they dried out, and then rolling them in the water to float to 
the mill. This method was not entirely successful because many 
logs again sank, even though they had been stored on the bank 
for a period of two years. 
When the distance from the point of operation is short, floats 
made of logs are built and a windlass mounted on them. The 
float is poled over the sunken logs and the latter raised by means 
of tongs which are attached to a manila rope wound on the wind- 
lass. The raised logs are dogged to the float and poled or towed 
to the mill or some convenient storage point. 
A hoisting engine with suitable booms and grapples, mounted 
on a flat boat, has also been used. The logs were either rafted 
and kept afloat by steel tubular buoys 32 feet long by 18 inches 
in diameter which were scattered throughout the raft, or else 
loaded on scows and towed to the mill or to some convenient 
storage point. Occasionally deadheads are attached to rafts of 
^ A law became effective in Wisconsin on June 1, 1921, which provides 
that deadheads, and sunken, or stranded logs outside of the limits of existing 
booms, which have remained for more than six years in navigable waters 
where more than one corporation or individual has floated logs, and in which 
no booming company has actually operated, are declared "abandoned" 
and may be salvaged by anyone. Those who salvage logs must publish 
notice of their intention previous to beginning work. On or before the seventh 
day of each month during the progress of salvaging, records of the number of 
logs salvaged, and marks on the logs must be filed with the lumber inspector. 
Those claiming ownership in the salvaged logs, after proper identification, 
and within thirty days, may recover logs, by paying a reasonable compensation 
to the salvager. All logs on which no claims are filed become the property 
of the operator. This law does not apply to certain streams forming the 
boundary line between Michigan and Wisconsin, nor to certain other streams 
or portions of streams specified in the law. 
