The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-06-29
DOWN A FLUME.
Swift Journey Down a
Nevada Mountain.
Rushing Through Space at the Rate of
Two Miles a Minute.

a Chicago newspaper man tells in he
Herald of that city an experience he once
had riding in a Nevada lumber f1ume.
Lumber fumes in the Sierra Ncvadas,"
he said, care all the way from five to
forty miles long. They arc built on a
regular engineers grade. The bed of
the f1umc is made of two-inch plank in
the form of a V, the sides of the V being
from eighteen to twenty.siX inches high.
They arc built on a grade of about six
teen feet drop to the thousand. They
carry eight inches of water in the acute
angle, and discharge it at the rate of 400
miners inches a minute. In other words,
turn in your water at the head of the
flumc, and it will carry a log weighing
400 pounds with a velocity greater than
the fastest engine that, was ever made.
The logs displacement just about fills
| the V, without any more friction than
necessary to keep it in place.
"About nine years ago I was up at
Lake Tahoe with E. W. Smallcy and w.
Fl. Patton Of the Mackcy & Fair Lumber
Company. Patton was showing us the
sights. We had come up from Carson
City, sixteen miles, by stage, and it was
q hot and tedious ride. About shutdown
Patton said: Boys, We'll go home by
the fume, and We'll get there a little
quicker, I think
"Hc directed a man to bring out the
yacht, as he called it. This was a "
shaped canoe about fourteen feet long,
very shallow, and made to fit the fume
and just about fill it with the displace-
ment of 600 pounds. The yacht had q
brake-two rubber pads on either side,
worked with a lever, and so applied
against the sides of the V lumc that on
pressure it would lift the yacht gradually
and allow the lightning current to pass
under her. She also had two small rub
Der wheels, one on either bow, to keep
her nose from grinding the sides of the
fume as she went by curves.
"'Now, boys said Mr.. Patton, but
ton up your coats, tic down your hats,
and hold on. Don't get scared. Trust
your lives to ME for the next half hour.
I've sailed in this yacht before, and 1
know she's staunch.'
"There were three seats. Patton took
the front one, to handle the brake.
Smalley took the next one, and I took
the rear and worked the tiller. That
was rugged just like a ships ruddcr, with
a rubber wheel to ease off her stern against
the side of the lume if she got to yawing.
Patton told his men to put on two inch
es more of water, and then, with a wave
of his hat, we weighed anchor. Great
Scott! how that thing jumped! Smalley
got seasick. I jammcd my helm hard
down, but Patton yelled through the air,
Let her go; I've got her" 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 n speed
that no steam could give. Trees flew by
like spectres. Looking ahead down the
narrow thread-like fume it seemed like
a plunge to destruction. Several times
the f1ume carried us over a high ~trestlc.
1t seemed like leaping over a precipice.
Smalley held his breath, but the little
yacht jumped it through the air appar-
emily with q swish. Curves would show
themselves ahead. The ruddcr wheel
would squeak on either side, and the
good ship would round the curve like a
flash. Sometimes an unevenness in the
fume would occur, and then, as the craft
sped over it, the spray would rise fifty
feet in the air.
"'Keep on your hats! shouted Patton;
then, as we struck a straight fve-mile
stretch, Now hold on to your teeth
81 don't exactly know what the mex
sensation was, but I tried to peep out
from under the rim of my hat, and, my
soul, it was all a blur-trccs, rocks, land
scape, were all mingled in an indistin-
guishable mass. 1t was as if one was
blown through the air from n catapult.
"Wcll, from the time we weighed an
Choir up at Lake Tahoe until Patton put
on his brakes just outside the lumber field
at Carson City it seemed like a minute or
two. We all looked Mt our watches.
We had made just sixteen miles in eight
minutes and forty seconds. I never in
all my life had such an illustration of the
force of water"
Agreeably Disappointed.
"And are you glad to see me, BobbyT