While it is the professed object of this volume faithfully to portray all the points alluded to, I am nevertheless impressed with the idea that no point which I have treated comes so far short of the reality as the attempt to picture the romance of the business.
The boom, which constitutes the general receptacle of all logs, is worthy a few lines of observation.
On the Penobscot it stretches up the side of the river in the vicinity of numerous islands, whose location is peculiarly favorable; the boom-sticks run from one island to another, and, where the distance is too great, a pier is sunk—a square frame of stout timber filled with stones. These piers sometimes span the whole river, united by the boom-sticks. This is true of the main boom on the St. Croix. On the Penobscot it stretches up the river about two miles; at the upper end there being a shear boom, which swings out to intercept and turn the logs floating down the river into its ample embrace.
The Boom Corporation, on the Penobscot, is regulated by legislative enactments, and all logs running into it, or within the limits of its charter, are subject to its laws and regulations. Its bounds embrace a section of the river six miles in length, and to the care of all logs coming within its limits the agent is obligated to give his attention, and the company responsible. It is the duty of the boom-master, with the men under him, to raft the logs of each individual in parcels by themselves previous to their delivery for the mills, guided in his selection by the particular marks cut on the logs, for which service and safe-keeping the owner or owners of the boom receive thirty-three cents per M. feet, board measure, which makes the property of the boom very valuable. In addition to this, every log found in the boom without a mark is a "prize log."
Among other duties devolving on the boom agent is to inspect, personally, every raft of logs, setting down the number and mark in a memorandum kept for the purpose. This course of management protects each log-owner's property from plunder, as, in case any and all persons were indiscriminately allowed to raft out logs, the temptation might prove too strong, in some cases, to regard with due honesty logs bearing marks of a different character. Besides these main booms, there are many lesser ones, up and down the river, subject to no special legislation or law except the will of the owner.
These observations relate chiefly to the Penobscot and St. Croix Rivers. Of the rules and regulations of similar corporations on other rivers I am uninformed, but it is to be presumed that they are much the same, in general.
CHAPTER III.
Observations on the St. Croix River.—Boundary Line.—Pine Timber. —Agriculture in the Interior.—Youthful Associations with Grand Lake.—Traditionary Name of Grand Lake.—Lake Che-pet-na-cook.— Rise of Eastern Branch St. Croix.—Lumbering Prospects.—Hemlock. —Reciprocal Relations of the Lumber Trade between Americans and Provincials.—The Machias Rivers.—Origin of Name.—Character of Soil.—Lumber Resources and Statistics.—West Machias.—Narraguagues River, curious Definition of.—Capacity of Stream.—Statistics.— Union River.—Observations on its Lumbering Interests.—Mills in Franklin.
Having in the foregoing pages given brief sketches of some of the most interesting trees known to us, devoting considerable attention to the White Pine, and the life and adventures of lumbermen, the concluding pages of this book will consist of brief sketches of the rivers of Maine and New Brunswick, and such statistics as to the extent of the lumbering operations on each river as may interest the curious in such matters.