The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1904-04-16

or the crew under Thorpe and
his foremen were briskly tum-
- bling the logs into the current
The men had continually TO keep alert,
for at any moment they were called
upon TO exercise their best Judgment
and quickness to keep from being car
ried downward with the rush OF the
logs. Not infrequently frowning
sheer wall OF forty feet would hesitate
OH the brink OF plunge. Then Shearer
himself proved his right to the title OF
river man
Shearer wore calks nearly an inch
In length. He had been known 10 ride
ten miles without shifting his feet on
log 80 small that he could carry II
without difficulty. For cool nerve he
was unexcelled.
II don't need you boys here any lon
ger" 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When the men had all withdrawn he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
fun OF flying foam and crushing tim
bers. and the spot on which the river
man had stood was buried beneath
twenty feet OF solid green wood To
Thorpe II 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. History
stated that Shearer had never lost n
man on the river simply and solely be-
cause he invariably took the dangerous
tasks upon himself.
In three days the rollways were bro
ken. Now IL became necessary TO start
the rear.
For this purpose Billy Camp, the
cook, had loaded his cook stove, a guam.
tity OF provisions and a supply OF bed
ding aboard scow. At either end were
long sweeps to direct Its course. The
craft was perhaps forty feet long, but
rather narrow, I'm order that II might
pass easily through the shoot OF dam.
II was called the ''wanigan."
The huge, unwieldy craft from that
moment was to become possessed of
the devil. Down the white water OF
rapids II would bump. smashing obsti-
nately against powders, against the
branches OF the stream side IL would
scrape, In the broad reaches Il would
sulk, refusing 10 proceed, and when
expediency demanded It's pause IL
would drag Billy Camp and his entire
crew at the ropes end, while they tried
vainly to snub 1t against successfully
uprooted trees and stumps. When at
last the wanigan was moored fast for
the night-usually n mile or 80 below
the spot planned Billy Camp pushed
back his battered old brown derby hat.
the badge OF his Office, with a sigh of
relief. To be sure. he and his men had
still to cat 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.
Along either bank, among the BUSH
co, on sand bars and In trees, hundreds
and hundreds Of logs had been strand
cd when the main drive passed These
logs the rear crew were engaged In re-
storing to the current.
And, as a man had TO be able to ride
any kind OF log In any water, 10 propel
that log by jumping ON IL, by rolling II
squirrel fashion with the feet, by punt
Ing II as one would canoe, TO bc skill
full I'm pushing, prylng and polling 9TH
or logs from the quarter deck OF the
same cranky craft; as he must be pre-
pared at any and all times To jump
waist deep into the river. to work In