“As it happened, however, the most stirring adventure that fell to our personal experience on that trip was one we encountered at Clarke’s Camp, on the Tobique, where we stayed but three days.
“This camp, but one of the many centres of operation of the great lumbering firm of Clarke & Co., was generally known as ‘Skidded Landing.’ And here let me explain the terms ‘brow,’ ‘drive,’ ‘rough-and-tumble landing,’ and ‘skidded landing.’
“In lumbermen’s parlance, the logs of the winter’s chopping, hauled and piled on the river-bank where they can conveniently be launched into the water upon the breaking up of the ice, are termed collectively ‘a brow of logs.’
“When once the logs have been got into the water, and, shepherded by the lumbermen with their pike-poles, are flocking wildly seaward on the swollen current, they and their guardians together constitute ‘the drive.’
“The task the lumbermen are now engaged upon is termed ‘stream driving;’ and laborious, perilous work it is, especially on those rivers which are much obstructed by rapids, rocks, and shoals. A brow of logs is a ‘landing’ when the logs are piled from the water’s edge. A landing may be either a ‘rough-and-tumble’ or a ‘skidded’ landing.
“The ‘rough-and-tumble,’ which good woodsmen generally regard as a shiftless affair, is made by driving a few heavy timbers into the mud at the water’s edge, at the foot of a sloping bank. These form a strong and lofty breastwork. Into the space behind are tumbled the logs helter-skelter from the top of the bank, as they are hauled from the woods. All through the winter the space keeps filling up, and by spring the strain on the sustaining piles is something tremendous.
“When the thaw comes and the river rises, and the ice goes out with a rush, then the accumulation of logs has to be set free. This is done by cutting away the most important of the sustaining timbers, whereupon the others snap, and the logs go roaring out in a terrific avalanche.
“It is easy to realize the perils of cutting out this kind of landing. If the landing has been unskilfully or carelessly located, the peril of the enterprise is greatly increased.
“The ‘skidded’ landing is a much more business-like affair. In this kind of structure the logs are placed systematically. First a layer of logs is deposited parallel with the river’s edge. Across these, at right angles, are laid a few light poles, technically termed skids. On these another layer of logs parallel to the water, and so on to the completion of the structure.
“With this species of landing, to release the logs is a very simple matter. There is nothing to do but quietly roll them off, layer by layer, into the stream, which snatches them and hurries them away.