The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-10-19
Continued From Last SundayD
CHAPTER Y.

y
CHAPTER Y.
For more than a week Thorpe had
journeyed through the forest. His
equipment was simple IN the extreme.
Attached to a heavy leather belt OF
cartridges hung a two-pound ak and d
sheath knife. In his pocket reposed a
compass, an air-tight tin of matches,
and a map drawn on oiled paper of d
district divided into sections. Some
few of the sections were colored, which
indicated that they belonged to private
parties. All the rest was state or gov
errment land. He carried in his hard
a repeating rife. The pack, If opened,
would have been found to contain a
wcolen and rubber blanket, fishing
tackle, twenty pounds or so of -four.
package of tea, sugar, a slab of bacon
carefully wrapped in oiled cloth, salt,
a suit of underwear. and several extra
pairs of thick stockings. To the out
side of the pack had been strapped a
frying pan, a tin pail, and a cup.
He had not met a human being, or
seen any ;ndica tions of man, excepting
always the old blaze of the government
survey. Many years before, officials
had run careless lines through the
country along the section boundaries.
These latter stated always the section,
the township, and the range east or
west by number. All Thorpe had to do
was to find the same figures on his
map. He knew Just where he was.
The map he had procured at the
United States Land Office in Detroit.
He had set out for the purpose of
looking a suitable bunch of pine in
the northern peninsula, which, at the
time was practically untouched. Access
TO the interior could only be obtained
on foot or by river the South Shore
Railroad had as yet penetrated only as
far as Seney. Marquette, Menominee,
and a few smaller places along the
coast were numbering near at home;
but they shipped entirely by water.
Thorpe, with the farsi ghtedness of
the pioneer, had perceive that the ex-
ploitation of the upper country was an
affair of q. few years only. The north
would not prove as accessible as it
now seemed, for the carrying trade
would some day realize that the entire
waterway of the Great Lakes offered
an unrivalled outlet. With that discov-
cry would begin a rush to the new
country. He resolved to anticipate it,
and by acquiring holdings before gen.
eral attention should be turned that
way, to obtain the best.
He was without money, and prac-
tically without friends; while govern
ment and state lands cost respectively
two dollars and a half and one dollar
and a quarter an acre cash down. But
he relied on the good sense of capt.
LaliEfC IN naFPeiWn from he CT fcti
which his explorations would furnish,
the wonderful advantage of logging a
new country with the chain of Great
Lakes as shipping outlet at it's very
door. In return for his information,
he would expect a half interest in the
enterprise.
Thorpe was~by no means the first to
see the money in Northern pine. Out
side the big mill districts already nam
ed. cuttings of considerable size were
already under way the logs from
which were usually sold to the mills
of Marquette or Menominee.
But work was on a small scale and
with an eye to the immediate present
only. 1t was accomplished by pur-
chasing one forty and cutting a dozen.
Thorpe's map showed often near the
forks of an important stream a sec
tion whose coloring indicated private
f1OSoSSSiCh+ Legally lnG owners mad
the right only to the pine included in
the marked sections; but if anyone
mad taken the trouble to visit the dis
tr1ct he would have found operations
going on for miles up and down stream
Inc colored squares would prove to be
nothing but so many excuses for be-
ing on the ground. The bulk of the
pine was stolen from unbought state
and government land
tn ~
enough trick.
Thorpe was perfertIy conversan+
with this state of affairs. He knew.
also, that in all probability many of
the eolored districts on his map rem
resented firms engaged in steals Of
greater or less magnitude He was
1urther aware that most of the con-
Germs stole the timber because il was
cheaper to steal than to buy; but that
they would buy readily enough if
FORCED to do so in order to prevent its
acquisition by another In his explora-
tion, therefore, he decided to emplov
the utmost circumspection. He would
pose as a hunter and fisherman
FOR week he journeYed through
inagnlncent timber working ALWAYS
more and more to the north mil
nnally he stood on the shores of Su-
perior He resolved to follow the shore
~est 10 the mouth of a fairly large
river called the Ossawinamakee. II
showed, in common with most streams
OF It's size, land already taken hur
Ihorpe hoped to find good timber near
the mouth. After several DAYS hard
walking with this object in view he
round himself directly ncrth of a bend
IN the river; so he turned through the
woods due south, with the intention
OF striking in on the stream. This ne
succeeded in accomplishing some
twenty miles inland, where also he
discovered weI1-defined and RECENTLY
used trail leading up the river. Thorre
camped one night at the bend. and
then set out to follow the trail.
1t led him for upwards of ten miles
nearly due south, sometimes approach
ing, sometimes lea ring the river. but
keeping always in it's direction. The
country in general was rolling. Low
parallel ridges Of gentle declivity cId-
cd constantly across his way. their
valleys sloping 70 the river. Thorpe had
never seen granler forest of pne
than that which clothed them.
AT the ten-mile point he came unon
a Dam. 1t was a crude dam-built NJ
logs,-Whose face consisted of strong
outtresses slanted upstream. and
whose sheer was made of Embarked
tlmbers laid smoothly side by side at
the required angle. At present it's gate
was open.
The purpose of the dam in this new