The Logan County banner. [volume] (Logan, W. Va.) 1889-1903, 1890-02-13

thiown away. We had not learned yet
TO tell good tree from bad one A
great many Of the cypress trees are rot
ten at the heart, though they look all
right outside But you can generally
tell poor one when you know how.
There are most always some light
eeiored spots On the bark of poor tree;
and il you take hardwood peg you.can
drive it into the spot three or four
inches. As we did not know this we
girdled all the trees we wanted that
looked we'll, and when We afterward cut
them great many were rotten at the
heart and not good for any thing. But
that was only little labor lost, and we
@ts.f =paenty=o trfsssss giFsttest and kfffeasto
give us good first crop.
adventures? We had some little ones
at first, but none of much. account till
the spring after our arrival The adj
venture we had in the spring. ! suppose,
was not very dangerous one, but it was
unpleasant at the time. musttefl you
something about going into the swamp
bsfore you can understand how it hap
pencil.
''There is no tide on the Ocklawaha
river. you understand and the state of
The water depend, entirely upon the
amount or rain that falls. This differs
with the season of the year. The mid
summer rains raise the water through
August and Septamhar, and then it falls
again and. is generally low in October
and November. In December and Janu-
airy and February there is almost always
rain enough to keep the water. high
through the winter and early spring.
Then it falls again and is mostly low in
-AprilvaHd May land in~IuHe and July it
is sometimes so low that you can 20 all
over the swamp on foot, if.you dodge
tho holes and bitches.
Through the winter we always went
iato the swamp in the boat, of course,
and girdlcd trees standing up in it. We
were fortunate enough to find natural
canal, a sort OF mud creek, running for
several miles into theTswamp on the OPP
posite side of the river from the house.
and tll1isz=wts the b:rsfs- of-atf OUT opera
lions. You always have to have an out
let OF chat sort to float the timber to the
river, where it is made into RATS. If
thnre is-not one NATURAL y-it-h to be
made, for there is no possible way to get
the timber to the river but to float it.
I'VE had .girdled pretty much all the
trees we coufdI reach from this muddy
creek in thu winter. and early in June,
when the water was so low that large
part OF the swamp was almost dry, we
set out to make 4 trip some distance
further than We could go in the boat, 70
see what kind of timber we had there.
There Is always water in the canals,
even when the remainder of the swamp
Is dry and we went in as far as our
nittural+eanal went perhaps mile back
from the river, and then left the boat
and went ahead on foot. Fortunately
we hal some provisions with us, for we
expected to be gone some days.
Travelling through the swamp, even
whcnit is dry, is slow work, stopping
here and there to examine tree. and
often making a detour in search of a
ditch to tloatzit out when cut@At the
end of the first day we were about three
milns | Should think, from the boat,
and toward tho end of the afternoon we
found as dry Il spot as we could to make
our bed of branches op-for when we say
that the swamp is dry, that merely
means that it Is not under waters: it is
never dry, and the mud at least is al
ways deep. We lighted a fire and cooked
our supper, and after smoking our pipes
wrapped ourselves in blankets and went
to sleep for there. is not much induce
mont to keep late hours in the swamp,
and We were tired.
Some time in the night | was walked
by being wet, snppose-at any rate,
both my feet were soaking and one
hand lay in pool of water. Wherever
VIC were not raisel above the ground
by tho boughs we were wet. woke the
boy, and we built up the fire as we'll as
we could with the wet wood. We were
on the=h CHEST ground in sight, andy
the freight ! saw that every thing
ahout.us was afloat. notched stick
and stuck it!in the mud, and in tho few
minutes thatit took us to get our pro-
visions and axes safely stored out of the
wet the water rose an inch. We had
had 10 rain at our place for-seyeral,
weeks, and the only way / could ac-
count fQr it was that there must have
been heavy rains up above us. and the
riverswas rising But how much would
it rise9 was the question. BY the
water marks on the trees ! saw that. it
had been six feet higher than it Vas
where VIC stood. and if it should come
up to that now W would have chance
to swim for it. looked at the stick
soon again, and the water was three
inches higher than when we woke UP.
1t was rising very fast.
.Fdon't know what put the" idea. In
my head, for had never heard of it,
but stumbled upon tho plan the lnm--
bannen always use when they are
caught in such fix If it had been a
moonlight night should have started
at once for the boat before the water
get too high,17but twas dark as pitch.
an away from the fire we could hardly
sec our hands before our faces. 1t
would have been little better than
suicide to try to 60 through the swamp
on such night, with the water rising
So determined to carry out the idea
that occurred to me, and even to do that
we weuldshave to work fast
II made the fire up as bright as 1
could get it and set the lad to work 10
cut down one OF the tall trees that stood
ne ar, and ! took another. We cut two
trees each and chopped the trunks into
logs about eight feet long. With these
we built a platform, laying two logs one
way and@two the other, building on and
up till we bad structure like a log pig
pen about six feet high. The top Of the
whole thing we covered with logs small
enough for us to lift-and by the time it
was done there was nothing but water
and trees all around us-even our little
island had disappeared.
1--WE had nothing to do now but climb
np and wait; but we stuck it out in the
mud till daylight, trying to keep the fire
going to warm us. BY daylight we we're
khee-deep in water, and as we had
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