Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1888-11-03
MOUNTAIN COMMERCE.
STREAMS ARE THE PRINCIPAL HIGH
WAYS IN EASTERN KENTUCKY.
How the Mountaineer Gets His Supplies.
The 'Push Boat and the Method of
Navigating It-Trnvoiing Up Stream on
the Big Sandy.

The "Push boat and the Method of
Navigating It-Trnvcling Up Stream on
the Big Sandy.
Among tho many novelties which tho
stranger finds among the mountains of
eastern Kentucky few will interest a man
of n practical turn of mind more than the
public highways. Tho mountain roads,
except where a mountain gap Is TO be
crossed, arc tho mountain streams. In
consequence there Is scarcely cross road
or four corners in this county outside Of
this, the only village In the county, but
wherever q creek forks or "a brook enters
creek the road forks.
Under Kentucky law the county judge
decides where and how new roads shall
be laid out. The ordinary mountain road
Is laid out six feet wide, and the roadway
proper must be graded not less than two
feet wide. But Judge Wagner, of this
county, is an cnterprising citizen, who
desires to prove the country, and in
consequence he has refused TO issue any
order for year past for roads less than
nine feet wide. This may seem narrow to
northern farmers, who lay out private
lanes at least rod wide but in country
where travelling is done on horseback, and
where the vehicles for transporting goods
of any sort, even In summer, arc narrow
sleds, the Dine foot road novelty
which has set the county to ing,
THE CREEK BED ROADS.
OF course there are necessarily wagons
wherever logging Is dono, but tho log
wagon sticks to beds of the streams,
which are invariably wide and hollow,
while the public highway winds along the
bank of the stream and runs in the actual
bed Of the stream only where the con-
fguration of tho mountain sides on each
bank of the stream makes it necessary.
When the logging Is done no effort is
rnade to keep open tho highway formed.
These creek bed roads are excellent In
warm weather and low water; in winter
and spring they are impossible for weeks.
The creek beds were originally selected
for highways because very little labor was
needed TO make highway out of a creek
bed. There is not such thing in Pike
county as n big nigger head rock. The
beds of the streams are of sand or sand
stone, and there Is never n rapid or water
fall of such descent as to bother team.
Another very good reason for utilizing
tho creeks as roads was the fact that all
theimports and exports of the mountains
have,been necessarily carried in and out
on therivers. The mountaineer's supplies
have been brought up from the Ohio river
to sell them. As oil creeks run by tho
easiest and generally the shortest route TO
The rivers, it was natural for the mount
nineer TO follow tho creek down TO its
mouth to get his supplies at the stores
which were located along the river.
THE "PUsH BOAT"
The rivers arc not very trustworthy
highways. Tho steamboats, on the Big
Sandy very often get started up for Pike
vile, the head of navigation, only TO get
stranded on n bar, or to find themselves
left in n pocket between bars by the sud
den fall of the water. Out of this unccr-
tainty regarding the length of steam
boats journeyto and from the headwaters
of the rivers has grown the craft very
novel TO northern eyes, called the push
boat. No better craft for the water could
be imagined.
The push boat Is a scow : feet wide, 60
feet long and IL inches deep. At one end
Is windowless house high enough for
man to stand upright in and 5kxS feet in
area. This Is the cabin. There Is sort
of quarter deck abaft the house, and
above this sweeps the tiilor end Of long
steering oar, which the pilot wields by
walking to and fro on II shelf built half
way up on the stern.
The merchandise is piled on three wide
planks that run, like keGls, the length Of
the boat, so as to cover large part of tho
boats bottom; but clear gangway Of at
least fifteen inches In width is left along
on each side of the merchandise no mat
ter how great the load. These gangways
are also tioored by planks laid bilge-keelson
fashion.
A boat like this will carry twelve to
fifteen tons dead weight Of goods ON a
draught of eight inches. There are over
100 of them regularly employed on tho
Big Sandy, and tho cargoes carried up
consist chiefly of the goods kept in tho
country stores. At certain seasons, par
ticularly in the fall, down cargoes can bo
had.
SHOWING A boat.
When the boat Is loaded the skipper
climbs to his shelf and grasps the tillcr.
The crew Of four men cast off the ropes
and pick up their push poles. These
poles ara about ten feet long and from an
inch and half thick Mt tho upper end
swell TO two inches thick at the bottom,
where they are shod with short pike.
Two of tho crew stand on the starboard
bow and two on the port, one behind tho
other, and facing aft, place the lower ends
of tho push poles on the bottom of the
stream, the upper ends against their out
board shoulders, and then, throwing their
weight against the poles, they walk aft.
As the poles cannot slip along the bottom,
the boat Is forced forward. The push
boat is horizontally acting treadmill.
OF course, the men walk aft on the bilge
planks, which arc left clear of merchan-
disc, so that they can walk there freely.
1t is distressing to stranger-it makes
him feel Us if his own back was about to
break-merely TO look at the men as they
shove the boat along; but the Big Sandy
boatmen are hardy and cheerful race,
and not only do not fret and Chafe over
their toll, but even walk away to tho
tune of some rolliclling love song or ditty
which they have learned from the favorts
artist of a travelling theatrical troupe at
Catlettsburg.
Tho men get 81 day each and board.
The day runs from sunrise to sunset, and
in that time four men will shove boat
from thirteen TO fourteen miles up stream
on the Big Sandy. The pilot is usually
the owner of the boat. He gets seventy
tivo cents hundred pounds for general
merchandise brought from Catlettsburg
TO Pikeville. Il distance of 100 miles.
Flour he brings at 81 a barrel. 1t Is only
when the boat has full cargo and pros
porous passage. the boatmen say, that
the push boat owner gets any return on
his investment, which, however, Is not
great, for good boat costs but $50 or $40.
--PilSevile (Ky.) Cor. New York Sun.
Thought He Could Stand 1t.
"Nou would be sorry to lose your sister.