We had no apparatus for handling any logs more than 6 or 8
inches in diameter, and Bill reckoned it out that we would have to have
about fifty logs of this size for the sides of the building alone. This
did not mean that fifty trees had to be chopped down, because we could
usually cut two logs from a single tree. As the logs would have to overlap
about a foot at each corner, we had to cut the longer ones to a length of
14 feet and the others to a length of 12 feet. Aside from these we had to
have several 16 foot logs for the roof. Only the straightest logs were
chosen, and while Bill and Reddy wielded the axes the rest of us hacked
off the small branches with hatchets and hauled the sticks down the river.
Here we tied them together to make a raft.
The Log Raft.
[Illustration: Fig. 264. Tying the Logs Together.]
[Illustration: Getting Dinner.]
[Illustration: The Photo after which Our Log Cabin was Modeled.]
This was done by running a pair of ropes alternately over and under the
logs at each end (see Fig. 264). About fifteen were thus fastened
together, and then as an extra precaution a log was laid across each end
of the raft and tied fast. As soon as we had cut enough timber for our
first raft, we all ceased work, to take a ride down the river on the logs.
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