The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-30
DOWN A LUMBER CHUTE
4 CALIFORNIA WATER SLIDE
 OF FIFTY-TWO MILES.


 Lumber Plume From the Summit
 of tho Pine Mountains in the Town x of Fresno-How the Plume Boats Are
 Constructed.
 What would the Eastern people, who
 delight in coasting hills quarter or
 even a half mile long on wintry days or
 who go into ecstasy at shooting a to-
 baggan slide, say to ride, la tobog-
 gan, down a slide fifty miles long?
 There are several places in California
 where such an experience may be had,
 The ride is not only an uninterrupted
 constant slide for forty or fifty minutes
 from the start to finish, but is as thrill-
 ing, risky and rapid as any one might
 wish. Think of riding to small craft
 in a great trough, projecting in the
 air fifty or seventy feet above the earth,
 from lofty mountain crest down
 through forests, across canons, shoot
 ing around precipiees and crags, dylng
 over cattle ranches, orchards and Vine-
 yards, and darting in this rude craft over peoples flower gardens and homes
 amid every picturesque scenery Con-
 slider the fascination of travelling in
 four hours down a watery toboggan
 slide from the snow -clad and icy peaks of the talIest Sierras down into val
 ley as balmy as May morning and amid yegetat ion as fresh and luXuriant as in midsummer. Nowhere in the broad world may such an experience be duplicated
 Fumes, by which cut lumber of logs may be foated from the forests primeval and the sawmills on the spurs of the Sierra Nevada range down to the valleys below, are common on this coast from San Diego to Nan- couver They are built upon huge tres ties and vary in height from 10 to 100 feet depending upon the level of the country traversed. All the fumes are V-shaped and the water flowing through is a yard deep at the deepest part. When in operation the Hume is gorged for a week at time with lum- Der, which is fished out at the valley terminus of the Hume, and sorted and piled ready for use The longest Hume is in northern California. It is sixty four miles long and cost $430,OO0, where the lumber is cheap. A new Hume was recently finished in Fresno County. It Is with this Hume that this story deals. It leads from the immense pine forests on the mountains. 1000 feet above the ea-level, down into San Joaquin val ley, at the little town of Colls, near Fresno, In other words, the Hume starts amid the perpetual snows and ice of the Sierras and terminates amid vineyards and apricot orchards of the eni-tropic San Joaquin Creek in the mountains, supplies the water.
 The Hume boats, in which the rapid Journeys are made down the fumes, are simple. They are made the shape of the V-boxes of the fumes. The up- per ends of the boats are closed by boards nailed across, but left open to let out the water which splashes over the sides of the boat from time to time. | Short boards are laid across for seats, | depending upon how many persons are 10 make the journey. A carpenter can | make one of these boats in half an 1our. The boat is meant only for one | Journey. for none is ever hauled back | 'or another voyage. Only little prep- | ara ton is necessary for a trip of this | kind, and half dollar will buy enough | ufnber for the boat and q man is a poor indeed who cannot make his ,wn vessel. The trip is made with lit- le danger-at least in this Fresno Hume. The principal trouble is when ,nce started there are few places where me can stop The current is generally 70 rapid that it makes landing impos- ible and the voyager can only sit still md let the boat run.
 The first ride down the new Hume rom start to finish was made a few lays ago. The boat was made the vening before at the reservoir on Stephenson Creek the eastern ter minus of the Hume, and everything was prepared for an early start and ample provision was made for all emergen- les, even to taking along a shotgun nd rifles, the former for killing quail nd birds, the latter for bear or any arge game that might be seen, for the ume, during more than thirty miles of Is course, passes through wild region f mountains, hills and forests, abound ng in game from the smallest bird to he largest animal.
 The passenger does not realize just ow he gets into the boat. nor how he makes the start. It is all over before @ has time to think. He has an un- overnable desire to clutch at things, ut before he can do so he Is gone, and he speed makes him catch his breath nd that is all he can do. The start as been, and it must be race to the nish. Before the passenger has time to | ,ok back or forward or to ask any uestions he has run the first half mile, nd is sweeping around curve, which pens to his vision a sight not pleasant | , contemplate, The Hume passes be- veen two walls of rock and then out | long the face of 8 solid rock, forming : le side of Stephenson Mountain. If ne can look down while speeding cross the giddy height, he will see be- aath him the canon of the creek, deep own In the shadows of morning, al- lost dark with the depths. The boat ! .ems flying through space, It is only moment till the giddy place is passed, Id the boat darts into mass of I oomy growing against the side of the V ountan.