Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1893-06-23
MID GIGANTIC FRS.
THE TELLING OF A MONARCH OF
THE FOREST:

THE FEELING OF A MONARCH OF
THE FOREST:
A Graphic Description of a Common
Western Scene as Seen Through
the Eyes of an Eastern Tourist.
Louise Herrick Wall, in Atlantic MONTHLY.
AS we stood in the broad sunshine
OF the roadway the stiffness took
far rhythmic pulse. 1t was the chop
pers once more at work upon stand
ing tree. We followed the sound,
keeping to the fork of the skid road
that led into the deep forest, passed
beyond the main group of loggers
and the deep-breathing team, until
we could hear the voices of the chop.
pers.
As We came up the two men paused,
and one said good humoredly, That's
right? Come to see us fell the tree?"
Then the axes swung again. Each
man stood lifted up on springboard,
whose end was slipped into a notch
cut in the base of the tree four or five
feet from the ground. They always
work above the ground this way, in
order to escape the increased work OF
cutting through the great swell at the
base. Standing with feet apart upon
the springy perches, they were Gun
dercutting" the tree on the side to-
ward which they wanted it to fall
The axes sent their pleasant reverbe-
ration up the straight, limbless trunk,
communicating only quiver to the
plumed limbs two hundred feet above.
Clean white chips were cleared out
from the V-shaped cleft OF the under
cut, and after little measuring and
squirting along the tree the men
dropped down, and shifted their
boards to nOtches in the opposite side
of the tree from the under cut. Then
the long saw with handle at each end
came into use. The men started
carefully, holding the saw quite true
that later it might not wedge. They
drew it back and forth cautiously at
first, until it penetrated the bark
evenly and the teeth caught on the
wood. A thin shower of pale sawdust
floated down from either side, as the
saw grated in and out, and the loggers
swayed slightly from hip to hip, their
red-shirted aims moving with the
iron regularity Of piston rods. Back
and forth, back and forth, went the
handle of the saw. 1t seemed an
endless business for those two men to
drive that edge OF steel through twelve
feet OF solid, fiawless wood. There is
the dull monotony of machine-work
in the saving, different from the
spirited rise and fall of the axes, and
the sharp cracking away, beneath the
telling blows of great white chips, and
our eyes wandered beyond the workers
to the green stiffness. Little clearing
had been done at this point. The
whole upper growth was of evergreens
and so dense that no speck of sky
could be seen beyond their exalted
tops-so dense that in this virgin
forest the running elk throws his
antlered head backward and from side
to side to pass through the close
phalanx OF trees, and is sometimes
wedged between their bodies and
slowly perishes. Beneath the lofty
canopy. supported upon its close,
shaft like columns, grew matted
tangle of underbrush and man-high
elk fern, the pale green Of the small
leafed huckleberry and salmonberry
making a delicious note OF freshness
beneath the sombre grandeur of the
dull green vault above. So dense is
the overshadowing of the evergreens
that the air is moisture-laden in mid
summer, and is seen through the vista
of endless columns vaporous blue,
as of drifting incense. Upon the
rough ground muscular with plated
roots, mats of heavy moss, vividly
green during the rainy season, lay in
yellow patches.
The saw labored heavily as the
weight of the tree began to settle
upon the deeply imbedded blade; two
steel wedges were driven little way
into the cleft, but although the weight
was thereby somewhat relieved, still
the saw moved hard. The men
paused again, and one took the ad-
Unstable handle from his end OF the
saw, while the other drew the toothed
blade half its length out toward him
and spattered liberal supply Of kero-
sene oil from his bottle upon it; then
pushing it back the handle was re-
adjusted. The men jerked up their
trousers, wiped the sweat from their
foreheads and jump heavily on their
springboards to jar them back into
place.
"All set" called the older man,
and once more the even grating, the
piston-rOd arms, and the drifting of
pale gold sawdust. Then the sound
OF the saw suddenly changed from the
dry CRATE to dull, soft humble.
"Pitch!" exclaimed both men in a
tone OF deep disgust; and as they
spoke, through the fine cleft the saw
had made oozed thick, sluggish
stream of turpentine, and fell down
the side of the tree to the ground.
There's barrels OF it in this tree
and it's as slow as molasses in Janu-
ary"
But they settled themselves once
more or work. The saw, gummed
with pitch, moved with heavy resist
ence, and the steady ooze of the tur-
pentinc increased in volume.
You'd better get that can, jim"
said the older man, and the other
dropped down from his perch into the
iunderbrush and started for the road.