Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1886-06-12

Ridtng Down the Sierra Nevada
Mountains at the Rate Of Two
Miles u Minute.

Riding DCWn the Sl6rrA NcVhoo
Mountains at the Rate Of Two
Miles u Minute.
A Chicago newspaper man tells IN
the Herald OF that city an experience
he once had riding in a Nevada lumber
hume. Lumber fumes in the Sierra
Nevadas," he said, ''are all the way
from five to forty miles long. They
are built on a regular engineer grade.
The bed OF the iume is made OF two
inch plank in the form of q V, the sides
of the V being from eighteen to twenty
six inches high. They are built on a
grade of about sixteen feet drop to lao
Thousand. They carry eight inches of
water in the acute angle. and dis.
charge it at the rate OF 400 miner
inches a minute. In other words. turn
in your water at the head of theh dunno.
and it will carry a log weighing
400 pounds with q velocity greater
than the fastest engine that was ever
made. The logs displacement just
about fills the V, without n more
friction than necessary to keep it in
place.
About nine years z / vas up at
Lake Tahoe with K. w. Smallev and
w. n. Patton. OF the Mackey IL Fair
lumber company. Patton was show
icg us the sights. We had come up
from Carson City, sixteen miles by
stage, and it was a hot anu tedious
ride. About shutdown Patton said:
H.. xu.FI .xN ana hv Nln N,-,a a.t
we'll get there a little quicker, | think
"He directed "A man c bring out the
yacht, as he called il. This was a "
shaped canoe about fourteen feet long,
very shallow, and made to BIT the fiume
and Just about ill it with the displace-
ment of 900 pounds. The yacht had a
brake-two rubber pads on either side.
worked with a lever and SO applied
against the sides of the Y tiume that on
pressure it would lift the yacht gradu-
alln and allow tho lightning current 70
PASS under her. She also had two
small rubber wheels, one on either
bow. to keep her nose from grinding
no sides of the tiume as she went by
urves.
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 half hour.
I've sailed in this yacht before, and |
know she's stanch.
"'There were three seats. Patton
took the front one to handle the brake.
Smalley took the mex one, anu / tool
the rear and worked tho tiller. That
was rugged just like a ships rudder,
with a rubber wheel to ease off her
stern against the side of the iume if
she got to yawing. Patton told his
men to put Oh two inches more of
water, and then, with a wave of HIS
hat, we weighed anchor. Great Scott!
how that thing jumped! Smalley got
seasick. / jammed my helm down
hard. but Pacrnn yelled through the
air: Let her r., I've got her And
with one hand on his brake. his hat
crushed on his head. and his teeth set,
he looked the incarnation of courage.
We plunged down the mountain with ii
speed that no steam could give. Trees
Jew by Ike spectres. Looking ahead
down the narrow thread-like hume it
seemed like a plunge to destruction.
Several times the llume carried us over
y high trestle. Ii seemed like leaping
over a precipice. Smalley held his
breath, but the little yacht jumped it
through the air apparently with a
swish. Curves would show themselves
ahead. The rudGer wheel would
squeak on either side, and the good
ship would round that curve like a
flash. Sometimes an unevenness in
the dune would occur, and then. as
the craft sped over it, 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
Il don't exactly know what the next
sensation was. bat / tried to peep ont
from under the rim of my hat. and,
my soul, it was all a blur trees, rock,
landscape were all mingled in an in
distinguishable mass. 1t was as if one
was blown through the air from a cnt-
apault.
well, from the time we weighed
anchor up at Lake Tahoe until Patton
put on air brakes just outside the lum-
Der at Carson 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 Sec
ends. / never in all my life had such
an illustration of the force of waler."