Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-04-05

had beer dark two hours when we
heard if coming. the 6u'I murinurinE
ubder-roar of a far-oH torrent grad
ually growing nearer till thriiie" WIN
the Swapping of trees that grew III ltS
way, and dominated nov and tien pF
the thunder-roar of bursting riVCr ICE.
1t was hard work-thfs waiting In the
forefront of that torrential onrLsh.
ashamed to go out and climb Inc
mountain and flee before the wrath 10
come. Yet it was needless. The camp
WIS far above the river and II the
waters reached 1t there would Z time
enough to get out. On it came. The
darkness Of night and rain brooded
! over us. yet we could make out the vel
low flash of flood faces as tn" ore
riders of the fray bore down upon The
log landing. Here a million feet of legs
l",d down the ice and bore back the
| rush. The cohorts of thu Hood drew
| back and beloved. They lcapC at this
/ log barrier and hurled floating ace upon
II. They burrowed beneath the logs
and shouldered them up. They snatched
| them then and hurled them forward
| upon their fellows and with ice and
| logs. amid hurly-burl that was very
| like the deafening clash of conten,,inS
| armies: they built another intrnnchcd
| camp, this time a greater AMI more
| strongly fortified one for it had no.
| only all the ice from up river but our
| million feet Of good spruce logs il its
| barricade. There it sat and recurcrat-
ed and reinforced until midnight.
Steadily, surlily the waters rose up
and up till the howell just down the hill
| from the camp was flooded and we had
to take the horses out for safety. To
| the camp doors it came and there ii
waited. With the building uf the ice
| lam had come comparative silence and
tll' twelve o'clock it lasted then the
mighty forces, gathered behind the
| DAM began to move again
All together, with one terrible uplift
| they burst the ice beneath the logs and
| toppled it, logs, barricade and all.
sweeping the whole before them down
rive with ali uproar that had in it the
rendinS crash of artillery. the restless
Onridng hoOfbeats of million cavalry
ana the roar of muSket vollcyS. Grad
ually the noise sank down the valley,
J followed by the hiss of ice cakes grind
| ing in receding waters, and we knew
the camp was safe; and then man
sprang to his feet, his face white in
the dim lantern light. Good Cod" he
cried: what will this do to the fellows
down ut Packard's Campo"
| What, indeed, We could not have
warned them even had we known the
danger in time. 1t was three miles and
the road was impossible to man or
| horse. At any rate they knew
| enough to expect trouble and were no
| doubt safe up the mountain by this
| time. There was a dam at Wallace
| Presses sporting camp half way down
and we tried to talk that would hold the
| Hood for awhile but we knew better
| We knew that the waters would cata-
| putt that dam with our logs and sweep
| it aside like rifle of river chaff; and
| it did.
| Yet the people down at Packard's had
taken no precautions, and the camp
was built on low land right by the
river. Fortunately a bend took the
| main rush of water to one side, else
| had no one been left to tell the tale
| Thus optimistic and careless of per-
sonal danger is the lumberman. Every
man in that beleagured camp turned in
1
| sleep of those with good consciences
and weary backs. 1t was a little after
twelve that it happened, and know no
better way to tell the story than in the
plain words of Tozier. the lumber
| scaler. who bunked there for the night
on his trip from camp to camp. The
lower row of lumbermen's hunks is on
| the floor and TOzier slept in one of
| them.
Il walked up he said, dreaming
| that / was in the coolest and noisiest
and biggest sawmill that ever run. and
when | got awake l thought it was true
| still, and the wettest. There was a
roaring and pounding and grinding 60
| ing on such as l never had heard be-
| fore, the camp stove Kissed like steam
| boiler, and 1 was bunking in water, very
wet and very cold water it was. too.
| AS rose, SO did the water. l got to nv
| knees and it was to my waist: | stood
| outside on the floor and it was up to
my waist still. and when / climbed into
| the upper bunk it was getting in with
| me and waking up the men there much
| more effectually than we lower bunk
ers could do it. Some say there were
yellS and family prayers. ! don't be-
lieve it. If there was. no one could hear
| them for the noise outside; the grinding
| and banging drowned all else We stood
| there in the water with our heads
! against the roof. and some one got hold
Of lantern and lighted it. Just then
the camp. which had only shivered be
fore. jumped like skittish horse
| The up-river end came in and a regular
| troop Of logs came riding through They
pushed the down-river end out and went
| with 1t, and then we had a millracc run
! ming through with logs and ice filling it.
You could feel the camp rock when thev
| damned against it, but you could not
| near the man next you if he shouted in
| Your ear. the noise outside and in was
| SO great. 1t seemed as il the camp
would go any minute and drop us in, for
| the water still rose, though not so fast.
By-and-by someone thought Of the sky
! light and we crawled out onto the roof
| one by one. If the camp dropped with us
| there we would go down into Gulf AgtIs
with 1t and no one he the wiser for it; so
we began to jump off in the darkness on
| the uphill side.
There was no stop for the cohorts of
the Hood till fifteen miles below they
reached Silver Lake. There they in
trenched again and made it a fortified
camp. Requirements came by brigades
and divisions from continent streams and
the young army. serene in its strength.