The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-12-28
CHAPTER XVII.

the crew under Thorpe and his fore
men were briskly tumbling the logs
into the current. Sometimes under the
urging Of the peaVeys but single
stick would slide down; or again a
double tier would cascade with the
roar OF a little Niagara, The men had
continually to keep on the tension of
an alert, for at any moment they were
called upon to exercise their best judg
ment and duickness to keep from being
carried downward with the rush Of the
logs. Not infrequently a frOwning
sheer wall Of forty feet would hesitate
on the brink of plunge. Then Shearer
himself proved his right to the title
of riverman.
Shearer wore caulks nearly an inch
In length. He had been known to ride
ten miles, without shifting his feet, on
log so small that he could carry it
without difficulty. For cool nerve he
was uneXcelled.
Il don't need you boys here any
longer" he said quietly.
When the men had all withdrawn he
walked confidently under the front of
the rollway, CHANGING with practiced
eye at the perpendicular wall of logs
over him. Then, as a man prizes jack
straws, he clamped his peavey and
tugged sharply. At once the rollway
fiattened and toppled. A mighty splash,
a. hurl of flying foam and crushing
timbers, and the spot on which the
riverman had stood was buried be-
meath twenty feet of solid green wood
To Thorpe it seemed that Shearer must
have been overwhelmed, but the river
man always mysteriously appeared at
one side or the other, nonchalant, urg-
ing the men to work before the logs
should have ceased to move. Tradi-
ton claimed that only once in a long
woods life had Shearer been forced to
take water before a breaking roll
way, and then he saved his peavey.
History stated that he had never lost
a man on the river simply and solely
because he invariably took the danger
Gus tasks upon himself.
As soon as the logs had caught the
current, a dozen men urged them on.
With their short peaveys the drivers
were enabled to prevent the tin1bers
from swirling in the eddies-One of
the first causes of a jam. At last, near
the foot of the fats, they abandoned
them to the stream, confident that Mo-
loney and his crew would see to their
passage down the river.
In three days the rollways were brok-
en-. Now it became necessary to start
the rear.
For this purpose Billy Camp, the
cook. had loaded his cook stove, a
quantity of provisions, and a supply of
bedding aboard a scoW. The scOW was
built of tremendous hewn timbers, four
or five inches thick, to withstand the
shock of the logs. At either end were
long sweeps to direct its course. The
craft was perhaps forty feet long, but
rather narrow. in order that It might
pass easily through the chute of a dam.
1t was called the "wanigan.'
Billy Camp, his cookie, and his crew
of two were now doomed to tribula-
ton. The huge. unwieldly craft from
that moment was to become possessed
of the devil Down the white water
of rapids it would bump, smashing OBJ
stinately against boulders. impervious
TO the frantic urging of the long
sweeps; against the roots and branches
of the streamside il would scrape with
the peryerseness of a vicious horse; in
the broad reaches it would sulk, refus-
ing to proceed; and when eXpediency
demanded its pause it would drag Billy
Camp and his entire crew at the ropes
end, while they tried vainly to
snub il against successfully uprOOted
trees and stumps. When at last the
wanigan was mOOred fast for the night
usually a mile or so below the spot
planned-Biliy Camp pushed back his
battered old brown derby hat, the
badge Of his Office. with a sigh of re-
lief To be sure. he and his men had
still to cut wood, construct cooking
and camp fires. pitch tents. snip
browse and prepare supper for seventy
men: but the hard work of the day
was over. Billy Camp did not mind
rain or cOld-he would cheerfully cook
away with the water dripping from
his battered derby to his chubby and
cold-purpled nose-but he did mind
the wanigan. And the worst of it was
he got no sympathy nor aid from the
crew. From either bank he and his
anxious struggling assistants were
tious remarks. The tribulations of the
wanigan were as the salt of life to the
spectators.
Billy Camp tried to keep back of the
rear in clear water, but when the wani-
gan so disposed he found himself
damned close in the logs. There he had
a chance in his turn to become specta-
tor. and so to repay in kind some Of
the irony and Righteousness.
Along either bank. among the bushes,
on sandbars. and in trees, hundreds
and hundreds of logs had been
stranded when the main drive passed.
These logs the rear crew were engaged
in restoring to the current
And as a man had to be able to ride
any kind Of log in any water TO
propel that log by jumping on it. by
rolling IT squirrel fashion with the feet,
by bunting it as one would a canoe. to
be skilfui in pushing. prying and pol
ing other logs from the quarter deck of
the same cranky craft: as he must be
prepared at any and all times to Jump
waist deep into the river. to work in
fee water hours at a stretch as he was
called upon to break the most danger
Gus jams on the river, representing
as they did. the accumulation which
the jam crew left behind them. It was
naturally considered the height of
glory TO belong TO the rear crew. Here
were the best of the Fighting Forty
men with reputation as white wa
ter biriers'-men afraid of nothing
Every morning the crews were d.
vided into two sections under Kerlie
and Jack Hyland. Each crew had
charge OF one side of the river. with
the task of cleaning it thoroughly of
all stranded and entangled logs. Scotty
Parsons exercised a general SUPER
visory eye over both crews. Shearer
and Thorpe Travelled back anG forth
the length of the drive, riding the logs
down stream, but taking to a partly
submerged pole TRAN when ascending
the current. On the surface Of the
river in the clear water fioated two
long graceful boats called bateaux.
These were in charge Of expert boat
n1en-nen able to prOpe1 their craft
swiftly forwards, backwards and side
ways, through all kinds of water. They
carried in racks q great supply of pike