As several companies might be driving down the same stream, each log was marked by an axe with the private mark of the one to which it belonged. After many vicissitudes, the drive would reach the sorting boom, where the lumber of the various companies would be separated and made up into rafts.
A boom is a chain of logs fastened together by iron chains, and extending into the river. It may reach clear across, or one end can be anchored in the stream to allow a passage for boats. In that case the river end has to be anchored up stream to catch the logs.
One of the most serious things encountered on a drive is the log jam. It may be caused in many ways but usually by some obstruction, as a shoal, rocks, a narrowing of the river, etc.
The lumberman has a vocabulary of his own, and he recognizes several kinds of jams, such as wing jams, solid jams, etc.
No matter how caused, it is the business of the lumber jack to break up the jam, and sometimes before it can be done a late freeze will occur and the whole mass become solid ice and logs. It is sometimes necessary to use dynamite to break it up. The breaking up is a dangerous time for the driver, who must sometimes run for his life across the moving mass of logs to the shore.
After they are made into rafts, steamers are used to tow the logs to the various mills. It is slow work, but when the destination is reached, the real process of converting the tree into lumber begins. Often the rafts stay in the water for months before being broken up, and the logs guided to the endless chain which drags them up into the mill.
From this time on the action is very rapid. The modern mill is a mass of rapidly moving machinery, guided and controlled by comparatively few men. Three distinct classes of saws are used—circular, band, and gang saws, and different mills in the same neighborhood use different methods.
Band saws are continuous bands of steel, often 48 feet long, and as wide as 8 inches, which pass over two large wheels like a belt. Gang saws are straight and move up and down rapidly. A number of them are fastened to horizontal pieces, the distance apart being adjustable to the thickness of timber desired.
Before passing through the gang saw, the logs are usually edged, i. e., a slab is cut from two opposite sides. The log is then turned over on one of these flat sides, so that as it passes through the gang saw the planks are all the same width.
The slabs or edgings are passed through other saws and cut to the width and length of a lath, all the waste possible being made into lath or other by-products.