The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1867-12-06

oorhe IN mnu tSat the season for driving
logs, IN the parlance of lumbormen, does
not commence until after the genial
warmth of spring has cleared the channels
OF our rivers from the icy accumulatons
of winter and so, as our boom folks
don't expect to begin catching their logs
in their mammoth gill net until after the
spring Hoods come on, they wisely -unship
their boom timbers as soon as winter ap-
pears, and stow thcm snug ~ away in some
secure haven until they receive tidings,
from the great numbering regions, two or
three hundred miles away, shat foods are
OUT and they may soon begin to look for
the driftinglogs cut from b;ave old oaks,
towering pines aud tough hemlocks, as
they come gliding along, at the rate of 20
to 30 miles per day, on the swollen bosom
Of the Susquehanna. Then, and not till
then, is the boom really boom at all
But then the boom timbers are carefully
moored in their places, and all is
mede snug for harvesting the coming
crop. The Boom Master will be on the
alert, and send cut his buats with stout
crews armed with timber hooks, ready to
arrest aud change the course of any stray
logs that may manifest perverse tendcn-
cy to give the boom a slip. To be sure,
there is some difficulty and little dagger
in all this, but the boom men are not Of a
class to be scared either at trifes or real
dangers, but possess that sort of energy
which rarely fails of success.
We have spoken of driving logs, aud to
make this clear, We will explain that as
there is ten dency all tho time in float
ing logs to drift ashore, especially in the
windings of the river, it is found necessary
to adopt some mode of keeping them NOV
ing: To do this, the river is divided into
sections from Williamsport down, and
men living in the vicinity are employed Oh
either bark Of the river to watch during
the season for "driving logs'' and keep
them floating, by pushing them off into
the current whenever they come ashore in
their several sections, aad watch against
the river pirates, who, when they can,
manage to steal timber and help it on shore.
The occupation of these men thus employed
to watch the river shore is to drive the logs
or keep them running, and that is called
"driving the river" The expense, of
course is considerable, but us it takes the
place Of freight charges by other modes of
transportation, it will represent, upon the
amnnnt of lnmh"r nrodnced from The nuan-
tity of logs expected to be brought down,
only about 81 80 per NJ, in place of the
present freight charges of Sc to 81 per
NJ. 1.
Capacious as are the dimensions of the
side boom, it is by no means too large. In
deed few days run will so crowd and
pack it that in many places the logs will
pile up, one upon another, to consider
able height, and arrangements have to be
made for passing off the accumulations, as
rapidly as convenient, to their proper des.
.tiDations For this purpose the owners
of the saw mills, to whom the logs belong,
provided what are called " log sacks to
receive their logs and convey them to mill.
These sacks are formed of heavy timbers,
united together by chains SO as to form
an oblong frame sixty feet in width and
three hundred feet in length. They are
towed by steamers up to the end of the
side. boom and made fast to the piers,
whilst the boom men pass the logs into
the sacks of the respective owners until
each is filed. The logs being all mark
ed with the owners initials, or other CHI r
acters stamped upon the ends, the owner
ship Of each piece of timber is at once
determined. So soon as these sacks are
| filled they are taken in tow, like 80 many
rats, ard steamed round to the saw-milIs
in the Deighborhool, where their con.
tents are passed into the stationary boom
basius of each mill and The sacks return
ed u be filed again. THUS logs are rap
idly transferred from the boom to their
proper destination. The boom master,
with the aid of his assistants, keeps faith
full record of every log thus delivered
from the boom, aud so the work goes on
from day to day whilst the season lasts, or
as long as thera is any driving Of the river
in progress. The Boom Company charge
regular rates Of boomage,: which ar, fixed
by the charter, and in this way the re-
sources Of the Company are derived and
regulated. .............
As a procaution against damage from
drifting ice in the winter season, the boom
timhers are not only removed, as we have
stated, but the piers are so constructed as
to offer as little resistance as possible to the
passage of the ice, having their tops, which
project above the water, made sloping
down toward the current so that masses of
drifting ice will run up their sloping sur
face and pass over to the water beyond.
We have spoken Of saw mills that by
means Of this boom are to be supplied
with material for manufacturing lumber.
At present there is only one mill at Hav.
re de Grace, but at the new town of Oak
ington, situated about five miles south of
Havre de Grace, on the point of land
known as O4kington Farm, near where
the waters of Swan Creek unite with the
Chesapeake Bay, we find vast saw-mills
already erected, and others iu progress Of
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