Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1889-07-18
AMONG THE LoeeERs.
Hard Work of the Lumbermen in
Northwestern Forests.

Northwestern Forests
Few persons who are not in some
way actually engaged in the lumber
business have any adequate idea Of the
magnitude of the industry, and none
who have not been with the loggers in
the great pine woods of the north
west, and also seen the actual haul
ing, driving" and saving of the
logs can realize the wonderful pictuer-
esqueness of q traffic which, as the
SCIENTISTS tell us, is rapidly changing
the face of nature and the very climate
of our country.
The men who do the ''logging" are a
race of giants. More than almost any
other, their work calls for a giants
strength and for almost superhuman
powers of endurance. They are not
long lived. The exposures and hard
ships of the calling are enough to break
down the hardest constitution, and
the temptation to dissipation after a
winter In camp are as strong as those
that assail the sailor after long cruise.
Winter is the time for the camp work,
for only over the snow can the great
logs, perhaps half ton in weight, be
easily dragged from where they fall to
the waterway down which they are to
be floated to the mill, on the spring
freshets. The northern winter is Sc
we're enough, the cold being often
twenty degrees or more below zero, but
it is in the spring that the greatest per-
lis and hardships are encountered.
Then, the great logs having been drawn
by horses or oxen, or in some places over
rude railroads, from the neighborhood !
of the camp to the banking ground, "
on the banks of the stream which is to |
carry them to the mill, the drive" be-
gins, and this is the hardest of the work. |
The sun has not yet Ioosened the bands
with which the frost tied up the water.
and the logs as well, and dynamite is |
often used to break them. A confused
mass of logs and floating ice is started /
down the stream, and the men follow it,
watching closely for jams and direlects,
and for days together, with very little
rest, guide, force, and control the float
ing mass. A jam is often perilous in
the extreme, and the promptest action
is necessary TO prevent delays, for if the
pressure of the whole drive comes upon
a gorge. it is Herculean work to break
the combination.
So in the freezing cold water waist
deep, or elambering over the logs them
selves in mid-stream, the loggers wrestle
with distinctions, taking their lives in
heir hands hourly. For five or six
weeks they travel thus, with no camp,
no change Of clothing, and as little in
he way of luggage as possible. Stiff
md sore from oyer-exertion and the ter
-ible soaking in ice water, they sleep in
heir blankets on the ground at night,
With only the comfort Of rousing bon
ire between them and the sleep from
which there is no waking 1t is some
lines almost impossible for one of them
o rouse the others in the morning; but
he drive is on, and there is no rest
or them till the "boom" is reached, in
o which their logs are delivered, mixed ,
piggledy with others from
'ther camps. ,
A million logs or ''piecss, belonging ,
may be, to dozen owners, float in a i
onfused mass within the enclosure,
which is formed by claiming together a
tring of extra large logs. Each piece, ,
oweyer, is marked with the device of !
Is owner, and the sorting is not as diff !
ult or rs hap-hazard an operation as it !
ooks. They are made into RATS, and !
Dated, or il may be towed, down the I
lain river they have reached 10 the mill /
there they are to be fed for the saws
Harper's Weekly. a