Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1883-06-19

trate such coat of mail. The buffalo
fish is fine eating we prefer it to the
pickerel While we are below it nigh
not be amiss to look about us little
They are cleaning the fish in the boiler.
room, where are three steel boilers, TWEEN
ty-four feet long, forty-two inches in di-
ameter: in this room is the Niger
which controls the movements Of the
raft. Here are also the hunks of the
BOOSTERS or Roust-abouts, a dozen oil
or twenty of whom work upon the raft
these men seem happy enough, but then
life appears to us hard one oftentimes.
The engine room, light and pleasant and
scrupulously clean, is gay with bright
paints, wherever paint is admissible on
walls or machinery, and is profusely
decked with pictures, comic and other
wise; we can hardly believe it is an en-
CINE. room at all. There are two en-
gines, low and a high pressure, with
l5-inch cylinders and six feet stroke.
Here. too, is the Doctor" which sup
plies the boilers with water. This
Doctor" is getting a bit wheezy or
something of the sort, and pumps about
as much sand as water; which sand has
daily to be blown out of the boilers with
noise which makes the boat culver from
stem to stern.
Beyond the engine-room is the dining
room Of the Rooster" hardly as pleas
ant as our own above stairs, though the
food served is the same, and is always
plentiful and of good variety. With a
peep into the cook-house, where the fra
grant pies are just coming from the oven,
we pass the furnace and ascend to the
cabin.
After few days of "double tripping"
the channel becomes wide enough for our
raft to be coupled; it is now two hundred
and .ixty-two feet wide, by five hundred
and fifty long, and contains about ten
thousand dollars worth Of logs. Not
the least interesting part Of our work IS
watching it now; it is so immense, and
the islands and bars often render the
channel so narrow and crooked, that we
become at times perfectly sure that one
corner of the raft must strike; but with
a skill born of years experience, the pr
lot brings her safely through. The pr
lots are commanders on the raft-boats,
and their responsibility is great, their
work often arduous but there is fas-
cination about the river which even a
stranger soon feels, and which makes
those who work upon it, or even live
along its shore, loath to leave it.
At no time did we better appreciate
the skill necessary to run the raft, than
in passing bridges the spans were only
wide enough to admit half of the raft,
and the possibility always scented imml'
nent that trick of wind or current might
swerve the raft ever so little Just as II
were about to enter, and cause it to hit
the abutment and break. Breathlessly
would we watch, it was so long and
clumsy thing to handle, as it wound
its slow way into the narrow space
which it filled plump full. Many raft
has broken in passing bridge, and the
logs been lost; but ours goes through
unframed each time. Log RATS are not
the only kind upon the river; sawed
lumber is often made up in this form fol
transportation. Occasionally raft which
has been laid up for year, may be seer
going down the river; overgrown as suct
are with grass and weeds several inches
in height, one might easily fancy SOM
ambitious island, bent on sightseeing
to have broken loose and put itself Il
charge of steamer for that purpose.
Our homeward journey gives two ne'
memories of La Crosse one in the eve
ming, as we return for our second piec
of raft; the myriad colored lights alon
the shore, on the numerous boats, and o
the bridge, suddenly become part OF
wierd picture, by the flashing of a stron
electric light across the water to enabl
steamers to pass the bridge safely. Tn
light seems blue and intense in the SUI
rounding darkness, as it strikes the waite
and the opposite shore and brings out /
bold relief the tall smokestacks of OF
boat.
1t is just below the city, of an aftel
noon, that we encounter terrific thur
der shower; the rain and hail and ii
vivid fash Of the lightning are rendere
more appalling by the awful crashing {
the thunder, which reverberates froI
criff to cliff across the river until th
noise is almost deafening. Thorgh W
have lived among the mountains all GU
life, we now realize for the first time, th
forco thew ran lend In a thunder storm