o ride any kind of a log in any water; to
propel that log by jumping on it, by rolling it squirrel fashion with
the feet, by punting it as one would a canoe; to be skillful in pushing,
prying, and poling other logs from the quarter deck of the same cranky
craft; as he must be prepared at any and all times to jump waist deep
into the river, to work in ice-water hours at a stretch; as he was
called upon to break the most dangerous jams on the river, representing,
as they did, the accumulation which the jam crew had left behind them,
it was naturally considered the height of glory to belong to the rear
crew. Here were the best of the Fighting Forty,--men with a reputation
as "white-water birlers"--men afraid of nothing.

Every morning the crews were divided into two sections under Kerlie and
Jack Hyland. Each crew had charge of one side of the river, with the
task of cleaning it thoroughly of all stranded and entangled logs.
Scotty Parsons exercised a general supervisory eye over both crews.
Shearer and Thorpe traveled back and forth the length of the drive,
riding the logs down stream, but taking to a partly submerged pole trail
when ascending the current. On the surface of the river in the clear
water floated two long graceful boats called bateaux. These were in
charge of expert boatmen,--men able to propel their craft swiftly
forwards, backwards and sideways, through all kinds of water. They
carried in racks a great supply of pike-poles, peaveys, axes, rope and
dynamite, for use in various emergencies. Intense rivalry existed as to
which crew "sacked" the farthest down stream in the course of the day.
There was no need to urge the men. Some stood upon the logs, pushing
mightily with the long pike-poles. Others, waist deep in the water,
clamped the jaws of their peaveys into the stubborn timbers, and,
shoulder bent, slid them slowly but surely into the swifter waters.
Still others, lining up on either side of one of the great brown tree
trunks, carried it bodily to its appointed place. From one end of the
rear to the other, shouts, calls, warnings, and jokes flew back and
forth. Once or twice a vast roar of Homeric laughter went up as some
unfortunate slipped and soused into the water. When the current slacked,
and the logs hesitated in their run, the entire crew hastened, bobbing
from log to log, down river to see about it. Then they broke the jam,
standing surely on the edge of the great darkness, while the ice water
s