The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1894-04-26
TIMBER CRUISERS.
The Woodsmen Who Explore the
Trackless Wilderness.
Guided Only by the Mysterious
Secrets Of Nature.

On the frontier of advancing civil
zation there is species of livlihood
called cruising for timber" The
slmlle is an apt one, for the woodsman
who seeks new timber regions amid
the trackless wilderness, in which the
sun is hidden by day and the stars by
night, is as bold navigator as his
brother, who tolls on the painless
waste of the sea.
The timber-cruiser is even more q
child of the forest than the native he
succeeds. He is the precursor of the
the lumberman aud the sawmill, two
important factors in our progressive
civilization. He is untaught. Gener-
ally knows nothing of astronomy but
the suns course and the polar star,
because the heavens are SO often
wholly out of sight in the tangled for
est that he relies on other guides. The
mysterious secrets of terrestrial ma
ture, handed down to him by genera
tions of pathfinders gone before, keep
him informed.
On the prairie he knows that the
tips of the grass always incline toward
the south, and that they are less green
on the northward side. In the forest
the slender twigs on the boughs bend
southwark SO slightly, it may be, that
only the trained eye can detect the
DETECTION yet it is there. The moss
on the treetrunks is always on the
north side, the bark is smoother and
more supple on the east than toward
the west, and southwark the mildew
never comes Thus does this inlet
tered savant box the compass in the
wilderness.
The mber-cruiser is hero. He is
forest king. The wealth of the
woods is his. He always travels alone.
His acts of courage, endurance, and
skill are never witnessed by others and
are never boosted of by himself. In
deed, his successes or failures are
never talked about. save to the direc
tors of the lumber companies who en-
ploy him, and to whom he makes q
infinitely detailed report. He has
probably the best memory known to
man, for he will return from q two
months "cruise" and be able to locate
accurately every tract of valuable hem
lock timber in hundred square miles
of worthless woods and tamarack.
He undertakes the most arduous
journeys without providing more than
a blanket and few days provisions; !;
he confronts all kinds of dangers,
mindful of their inconvenience, but
fearing them not, because he studies
nature on q commercial basis. In brief,
he Is true philosopher; always pre-
pared for the unexpected; happy, be-
cause ignorant of the relative values
of comfort and discomfort, and brave,
because he is an egotist who believes
thoroughly in his own abilities.
His is the task of locating the land
scrip that capitalists and large corpor-
ations have purchased from the gov
ernment He precedes the woodsman,
the AK, and the saw, just as the post
trader precedes the teacher and the
preacher. He is to the advancing
lumberman what the Don Cossack Is
to the Russian hosts.
The location of choice tract of
timber is secret to be guarded with
his life. Weeks, even months, may
intervene before the lands can be
"taken up" and entered upon the rec
ords at Washington. The painless
forest is his home, solitude his com
panion, and, like his brother on the
"multitudinous seas" he often dies
alone, and his unburied body becomes
part of the elements of nature he SO
intimately courts. He is new to liter
ature, unknown to song and story. -
[The Century.
Hottest Desert in the World.