The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1896-08-06
ven three large trees to bring down. or

gwen 'hree large trees to bring down, or
iour men are detailed to lay low some for
est giant, perhaps 25 feet in circumference
10 the tenderfoot, that seems task i'm
possible OF accomplishment. OWING TO
It's enormous buttress, the trunk cannot
be cut near the ground: so the axemen
are Obliged to rig up platform. 10. Is.
~, or as many feet high as the buttress
extends. These platforms are called
"barbecues, though how that word
applies, nobody but an Englishman who
prldes himself on correct use of the lam
guage can say. The 'barbecue'' is made
of slim poles, one on each side of the trea
on supports, and two other poles laid
across them, also one on each side of the
tree. The axemen mount this platform.
with one foot on each pole, two men to a
tree, on opposite sides, and rapidly fell
the tree. 1t is marvel how men can
stand ON these slender poles and chop
down enormous trees; but they do it. and
rapidly too. In an incredibly short time
the stately monarch of centuries totters
and falls, crashing its way through the
crowd of smaller trees. The trunks
and branches are then squared and are
ready for transportation. In telling a
valuable tree, every precaution is taken
against breaking or splitting it and thus
spelling the lumber. This manner of
cutting on platform seems very waste
full as it leaves in the stump an average of
400 feet of the best part of the tree, so
far as beauty of grain is concerped-to
say nothing of the gnarled and twisted
roots, which bear the same proportionate
additional value that our walnut roots do
to the rest of the tree; but 10 better way
has yet been devised. Three hundred
trees are considered good seasons work
for one camp, each tree yielding 1000
feet of timber ON a modest estimate of
the average.
When the mornings ''stent'' is complet-
ed, the men are free the rest of the
day, to hunt, fish, sleep or gamble, to
search on their own account for India
rubber, sarsaparilla, and other market
able products of the woods, or to make
canoes, paddles, bowls, etc., from the
mahogany stumps, for their own use or
to sell when they return to the haunts of
man. The logs are hauled to the camp at
night, SO as to avoid the intense heat of
the day. Where the place is not too re-
mote oxen do this part of the work. Mr.
G. f. Bailey, who visited mahogany
camp in course of his recent visit to Be-
lie, describes the bringing in of the ma
hogany: 1.-The scene by torchlight, as
the huge two wheeled carts toll over the
worst roads in the world, is indescribably
picturesque. The gloom, the flashes of
torches, the oaths and cries of drivers
the shrieks of grease hungry wooden
wheels, the bawling of oxen, chattering
monkeys, scolding parrots and maccaws,
the scream of distant panther, the
CLEAN of savage eyes, the dusky naked
bodies appearing and disappearing; it
looks like a dream of Dante and sounds
like pandemonium broken loose
To MI. Bailey | am indebted for the
following figures: The ''hunter'' receives
for his service $50 to 500 per month; the
''captains" each from s14 to $50 per
month, and the laborers Sl2 per month,
including rations. Trees have sometimes
yielded as high as three logs, worth So
900 in Boston; but the general run is from
two to five logs per tree, each 10 to Is
feet long and from 20 to II inches wide
when hewed. The cost averages from
$50 to $40 per thousand feet. In addition
is export duty of IS. Transportation
costs S14 the ton to New Orleans, while
to distant London it is only IS the ton In
former times the logs We're RATED down
to sea, with all the excitement of logging
in our pineries, and with much loss of
valuable timber in the surf There are
yet many places where no other method
of transit is practicable, though on some
of the rivers of Central America mahog-
any sloops and steamers go up hundred
miles or more. When the hewn logs have
reached port somehow and the woodsmen
have secured the pay for their months of
toll, happy season of carousal begins, to
be kept up until duty again calls them to
the wilderness. And meanwhile the prod
uct of the former seasons work has gone
to decorate palace steamers and Pull
man cars and the homes of the wealthy
the world over
FANNIE BRIGHAM WARD,
Something to Know,