Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-06-24
DOWN a FLUME.

Riding Down the Sierra Nevada Noun.
tains At the Rate of Two Miles q Min
ute.
A Chicago journalist tells an experi-
snce he once had riding In q Nevada
lumber f1ume. Lumber fumes in the
Sierra Nevadas," he said, s'are all the
way from five to forty miles long. They
are built on regular engineers grade
The bed of the tiume is made of two
inch plank in the form of V, the sides
of the V being from eighteen 10 twenty.
six inches high. They are built on a
grade of about sixteen feet drop to the
thousand. They carry eight inches Of
water in the acute angle and discharge
it at the rate of four hundred miners
inches minute. In other words. turn
in your water at the head of the fume,
and 1t will carry a log weighing four
hundred pounds with velocity greater
than the fastest engine that was ever
made. The logs displacement Just
about fills the Y, without any more frio-
ton than necessary to keep it in place.
ssAbout nine years ago [ was up al
Lake Tahoe with E. w. Smalley and
w. 81. Patton of the Mackey Il Fair
Lumber Company. Patton was show
ing us the sights. We had come up
from Carson City, sixteen miles, by
stage, and it was hot and tedious ride.
About shutdown Patton said: Boys,
we'll go home by the hume. and we'u
get there little quicker, think
He directed a man to bring out the
yacht, as he called it. This was v.
shaped canoe about fourteen feet long.
very shallow, and made to fit the fluma
and Just about fill it with the displace
ment of 600 pounds. The yacht had
brake-two rubber pads on either side
worked with lever, and so applied
against the sides of the Y hume that
on pressure it would lift the yacht
gradually and allow the tightening cur
rent to pass under her. She also had
two small rubber wheels, one on either
bow, to keep her nose from grinding
the sides of the fiume as she went by
curves
".Now, boys said Mr.. Patton, but
ton up your coats, tie down your hats,
and hold on. Don't get scared. Trust
your lives to me for the next halt
hour. I've sailed in this yacht before,
and I know she's stanch.'
.sThere were three seats. Patton took
the front one, to handle the brake.
Smalley took the next one, and / took
the rear and worked the tiller. That
was rugged just like a ships rudder,
with q rubber wheel to ease off her
stern against the side of the fiume il
she got to yawing. Patton told his men
to put on two inches more of water,
and then. with wave of his hat, we
weighed anchor. Great Scott! how that
thing jumped! Smalley got seasick.
damned my helm hard down. but Pat
ton yelled through the air: Let her GO;
I've got herr And with one hand on
his brake. his hat crushed down on his
head. and his teeth set, he looked the
incarnation of courage. We plunged
down the mountain with a speed that
no steam could give. Trees few by
like specters. Looking ahead down the
narrow thread-like fume it seemed like
plunge to destruction. Several times
the fiume carried US over a high trestle.
1t seemed like leaping over a precipice.
Smalley held his breath, but the little
yacht jumped it through the air, ap-
parently with a swish. Curves would
show themselves ahead The rudder
wheel would squeak on either side. and
the good ship would round that curve
like a flash. Sometimes an uneven
ness in the fiume would occur, and then.
AZ the craft sped over il, the spray
would rise fifty feet IN the air.
Keep on your hatsr shouted Pat
ton; then, rs we struck a straight five
mile stretch, Now hold on to your
teeth.
II don't exactly know what the next
sensation was, but | tried to peep out
from under the rim of my hat, and.
my soul, it was all a bIur-trees,
rocks. landscape, were all mingled in
an indistinguishable mass. 1t was az.
if one was blown through the air from,
catapult.
well, from the time we weighed
anchor up at Lake Tahoe until Patton
put ON his brakes just outside the Luna
Der field at Carson City it seemed Ike a
minute or two. We all looked at our
watches. We had made Just sixteen
| miles in eight minutes and forty SEQ
onds. I never in all my life had such
an illustration of the force of water. 49,
| CHICAGO Herald