The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1907-07-03

4 TIE
FLUME|
By DENISON HALEY CLIFF.


Fate, from the very outset of his
brief college career, seemed disposed
bot to favor Nelson. He registered
Tor serious work in the department
bf civil engineering; but shortly after
BE fall semester had opened, he
$telded to the demands Of his college
hates and appeared on the football
held to try for the eleven.
He came from MADEIRA, a small
own in the sunny San Joaquin VAL
ey, where he had been fume-climber
Tor his fathers lumber company.
But to the enthusiasts of the univer-
kity world he was transformed from
The commonplace Clay Nelson, fume-
climber, to the great and more sig
hifcant Bull" Nelson, varsity"
half-back.
His name became associated with
The veteran squad, and his line-5uck-
ng made the coaches secretly jubi-
! ant, until there came a day, shortly
before the big California game, when
bis ankle snapped in the last prac-
ice, and his meteoric career was
pver.
He took his disappointment with
b stoicism for which no one could
account. In the hospital after the
game he spent his days absorbing
principles of ~hydrostatics and study
Ing critically designs of arch ribs,
while his ankle slowly knitted.
One day his nurse handed him a
letter from his father, asking him to
come home. The fume boss" OF
the MADEIRA company had deserted,
Ind Nelson alone could fill his place,
for the timber harvest was at it's
Full.
So when his ankle was strong
enough again he returned to the
mountains, and the mountains well
eomed him. The hills and valleys
were freshing into green once more
Under the soft pelting of the first
rains. The SHOWS upon the noun
tains we're resolving themselves into
Bmyriads of tiny streams that rippled
pver stones and gravel, wandering
through hedges Of witch-hazel and
b%manzanita until they Joined one an
pther at the openings of the gullies
knd raced down through the valleys
bnd the canons
Among these valleys and noun
|kains the MADEIRA lumber 1ume, which
Is the longest in the world, threads
Its way. Far up among the redwood
5orests it begins, and winds down
Rmong dense groves of spruce and
Fellow pine, crossing chasms and
Eataracts on trestles of steel, and
|resuming again the wooden skids
when it crosses through the canons
hnd shallow ravines, skirting sheer
cliffs and boring through the tunnels
pf the hills, till it falls at last into
the San Joaquin River.
AS climber, Nelson kept the 1ume
10 repair. Often he had to climb
among the maze of beams and
|girders, high in mid-air, calking
leaks in the great V-shaped wooden
chute, down which redwood logs and
railway ties were shot from the
mountains to the river.
Along the fume were two tunnels,
|one, the long tunnel, just beyond the
|Brinkhead, a towering bluff skirted
10y the fume. In this tunnel a leak
one day, until the loss Of
water interfered with the traffic. The
at Geyser Peak, close to the
river end, first noticed the falling
|otf of the current.
"The flow is dropping!" he called
Through the telephone to the head
Fof the flume.
The head logger called to Nelson.
Let once the climber ordered the drive
stopped, and Selling his kit, he lifted
the narrow fume boat into the chute
|and drifted down toward the tunnel,
tour miles away.
well cut off the feeders for an
hour, SO watch your time!" the head
called after him. Another
Thousand feet must so down be-
fore G."
It was then 8 o'clock. The short
boat carried Nelson rapidly along
the, great lumber-fume, now close
along the ground, now bridging
|canons and basins of granite, past the
|Brinkhead, until at last the black
ness of the long tunnel enveloped
him. The grade lessons here to an
angle Of fifteen degrees.
Nelson hooked the boat to the
side, and climbed over the edge to
the f1ume-step. Here the great v is
built up from three feet to seven from
its centre, that the logs may not leap
out in their mad race through the
Lighting the candle in his miners
pick, he began crawling along the
edge Of the f1ume. Darkness closed
in tight about him, close and ap-
palling. He crept on deeper and
deeper, listening for dripping water
Fabove the lick. lick, of the current
in the fume. The candle threw a
wavering circle of light ahout him