One cannot look at
these temporary structures without being impressed with the vast
importance of those water-powers which the Americans, with a wonderful
tact, bring to bear in the way of saw-mills on the exhaustless
resources of the forest. The very first thing looked for in settling a
new district is water-power.
These flats, though destined for but a single voyage, sometimes do not
reach their port,--seldom without more or less of danger,--and never
without infinite toil' They usually carry but three or four hands.
Their form and gravity render them very unmanageable. Lying flat and
dead in the water, with square timbers below their bottom planks, they
often run on a sandbank with a strong head-way, and bury their timbers
in the soil. To get them afloat again is a great labour. Sometimes they
run upon a "snag," and are instantly swallowed up with all their crew
and all their cargo. Sometimes a steamer runs into one of them, and
produces a catastrophe equally fatal to both. But all the toils, and
dangers, and exposures connected with the long and perilous voyage of a
flat boat, do not appear to the passer-by.
Pages:
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136