The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1886-08-20
A LUMBER FLUME.
"a LIGHTNING TRIP DOWN A NEVADA
MOUNTAIN SIDE.

The Speed of the Fastest Engine Outdone
Getting Aboard the Yacht" "A
Plunge to Destruction-Through the Air
ss as If Blown from CatapuIt.
Whenever Vanderbilt takes railway
ride 1t seems to be the stock In trade of some
reporters to tell how fast he travelled.
hen old William II. was alive the public
used to read with great interest how he
would harness up the fieetest engine at his
I command and reel off mile a minute and
al that, but fast railway travelling is now
given to the common multitude There are
seteral trains that go out of Chicago daily
tb&t between stations and on level places go
q nile in sixty seconds. "There is nothing
A0sei in the sensation" said an old news
paper man the other night at the Press
club. IF you want to feel that you are GO
ing fast over the ground you want to ride
ON Nevada lumber 6ume. picked up a
paper the other day and caught this item:
1.-The residents along lumber fiume in
the mountains above Chico, Cal have a
novel way of getting their mail It is
started on raft from the head of the fume
at regular dates and the people below watch
for it, take out what belongs to them, and
on its way. .....s ...r
''rhat isn't quite true, but it illustrates
the general use Of those fumes. Lumber
fumes in tho Sierra Nevatfa are all the way
from five to forty miles long. They are
built on a regular engineers grade. The
bed of the fiume is made of two inch plank
in the form of a Y, the sides of the V being
from eighteen to twenty six inches high.
They are built on 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 400 miners inches
a minute In other words, turn in your
water at the head of the fiume and it will
carry log weighing 400 pounds with ve-
locity greater than the fastest engine that
was ever made The logs displacement just
above fills the V, without any more friction
than necessary to keep it in place.
About nine years ago was up at Lake
Tahoe" said the velocity sharp. with E
w. Smalley, of The New YorkTribune, and
w. H. Patton, of the Mackey & Fair Lum-
Der company. Patton was showing us the
sights. We had come up from Carson City,
sixteen miles by stage, and it was hot and .
tedious ride. About sundown Patton said
Boys we'n 60 home by the f1ume and we'll
get there little quicker, think
GOING HOME BY THE FLUME.
He directed a man to bring out the
yacht, as be called it. This was V
shaped canoe about fourteen feet long, very
shallow, and made to fit the fume and Just
about fill it with the displacement of 900
pounds The yacht had 'brake'-two
rubber pads on either side, worked with a
lever, and SO applied against the sides of
the fiume that on pressure it would lift
the yacht gradually and allow the lightning
current to pass under her She also had
two small rubber wheels, one on either bow,
to keep her nose from grinding the side of
the hume as She went by curves. Now,
boys said Mr. Patton, button up your
coats, tie 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 I know she's stanch'
There were three seats Patton took the
front one, to handle the brake. Smalley
took the next one, and d. took '1'e .fgged just
like ships rudder, With rubber wheel to
ease off her stern against the side of the
fiume if 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 sea sick. l
jammed my helm hard down, but Patton
got herr ana with one hand ON his brake,
his hat crushed down on his head, and his
teeth set, he looked the incarnation of cour-
age. aa #gs.s .,s5az. IS. ,sgs
ave plunged down the mountain with
speed that no steam could give. Trees few
like specters: looking ahead down the mar
row thread-like fiume it seemed like a
plunge to destruction. Several times the
aume carried us over a high trestle 1t
seemed like leaping over precipice Small
ley held his breath, but the little yatch
jumped it through the air apparently 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 un-
eveness in the fiume would occur, and then,
IS the craft sped over it, the spray would
rise fifty feet in the air. Keep on your
hats' shouted Patton; then, as we struck
straight five mile stretch. sNow hold ON to
your teeth 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 blur-trees, rocks, landscapes,
were all mingled in an indistinguishable
mass 1t was as il one was blown through
the air from a catapult
well, from the time we weighed anchor
up at Lake Tuhoe until Patton put ON his
brakes just outside the lumber field at Car
son City it seemed like a minute or two
We all looked at our watches We had
made just sixteen miles in eight minutes and
forty seconds. l never in all my life had
such an illustration of the force of water"
II have always recognized it" said third
party, who had listened to the tale, and
never much believed it Let us go and get
else" Chicago Herald walks
and Talks"