Timber felling.
Before proceeding to give directions for building huts and houses, it may not be amiss to give a few hints on felling trees. Hints they can only be, as it is just as impossible to teach the art of wielding the backwoodsman’s axe by writing as it is to communicate the faculty of tracking wild animals through the forest by verbal directions. Experience and close observation are the only two true masters in both cases; still, we may be enabled to give such general directions as may save our readers from some of the humiliating predicaments we have seen the inexperienced wood-chopper placed in.
Nothing is more common than to see one of this class hopelessly pinching his axe at every cut, from having commenced his chop too narrow. The length of the chop, or chip as it is sometimes called, will, of course, depend on the size of the tree; but in all cases it should be made in a long wedge form, as shown in the annexed illustration. By cutting in this way, the surface of the stump is left as level as a planed board, and the log which is separated from it has, when it falls, a wedge-shaped end. It will, in most cases, be found that the tree which you are about to fell will lean more or less in one direction. Station yourself, axe in hand, on the side towards which the tree leans; then measure your distance by placing the edge of your axe on the centre of the boll of the tree, at such a height from the ground that the axe lays in a straight and true line according to the stature of the axe man. The check or flange at the end of the axe helve should rest in the hands as the arms are extended towards the tree. This will give the distance at which the axe blade may be best brought to bear on the tree trunk. In delivering the cuts, which should follow the distance test, the axe should be dexterously and powerfully whirled round the head; sometimes obliquely from above downwards, and at others in a straight and direct sweep across the line of the log. The horizontal form of the lower cut and the wedge shape of the upper will be thus preserved until the tree is half cut through, when exactly the same system of operation should be followed out on the side of the tree opposite to that on which the first incision was made. On the second chop being nearly completed, the tree will fall directly away from the axe man in the line of its inclination. On all the tops, lops, and branches being removed, and the log cleared from surrounding impediments, it may become a question as to what purpose it is to be applied.
If it is of great length, and comparatively short pieces are required, the process known as “logging up” must be had recourse to. This is carried out as follows: After measuring the length of the log, and dividing it into the requisite number of pieces by marking it with the axe, stand on the tree trunk, with your feet pointing across the grain of the wood, then with your axe proceed to cut two sloping or wedge-shaped cuts, as shown in the annexed illustration, carrying them into the log until half through it; then face about, and make two on the other side, which, when finished, should meet the others at their widest diameter, which will be that of the tree. Some settlers in wild countries burn down the trees in order to save labour; others girdle them. To perform this latter process, it is necessary to cut a wide band of bark from the butt of the tree near the ground. This prevents the sap from ascending, and thus quickly destroys vegetation. Where timber is scarce and valuable, the cross-cut saw may be made to aid the axe, and the tree taken off almost level with the ground. It sometimes, although not frequently, happens that trees are found too large to be felled by the axe or saw. This was the case with the so-called “big tree,” one of the “mammoth trees” of California. It was felled by boring a complete circle of holes round and into its immense trunk with augers. Five men were occupied during twenty-two days in completing the final overthrow of the tree, which was effected, after all the holes had converged, by the introduction of a number of wedges. Its period of growth was estimated at 3000 years; it measured 302ft. high, and was 96ft. in circumference at the butt. The bark measured nearly 1ft. in thickness.