100 FORCE OF.THE WATERS.
of the latter is situated about half a mile above the mill-dams, and is so
rocky and rugged in its bottom and sides, as to preclude the possibility
of the trees passing along it at low water, while, as I conceived, it
would have given no slight labour to an army of woodsmen or millers, to
move the thousands of large logs that had accumulated in it. They lay
piled in confused heaps to a great height along an extent of several hundred
yards, and were in some places so close as to have formed a kind of
dam. Above the gorge there is a large natural reservoir, in which the
head waters of the creek settle, while only a small portion of them ripples
through the gorge below, during the latter weeks of summer and in early
autumn, when the streams are at their lowest.
At the neck of this basin, the lumberers raised a temporary barrier
with the refuse of their sawn logs. The boards were planted nearly upright,
and supported at their tops by a strong tree extended from side
to side of the creek, which might there be about forty feet in breadth.
It was prevented from giving way under the pressure of the rising waters,
by having strong abutments of wood laid against its centre, while the
ends of these abutments were secured by wedges, which could be knocked
off when necessary.
The temporary dam was now finished. Little or no water escaped
through the barrier, and that in the creek above it rose in the course
of three weeks to its top, which was about ten feet high, forming a
sheet that extended upwards fully a mile from the dam. My family
was invited early one morning, to go and witness the extraordinary effect
which would be produced by the breaking down of the barrier, and
we all accompanied the lumberers to the place. Two of the men, on
reaching it, threw off their jackets, tied handkerchiefs round their heads,
and fastened to their bodies a long rope, the end of which was held by
three or four others, who stood ready to drag their companions ashore,
in case of danger or accident. The two operators, each bearing an axe,
walked along the abutments, and at a given signal, knocked out the wedges.
A second blow from each sent off the abutments themselves, and the
men, leaping with extreme dexterity from one cross log to another, sprung
to the shore with almost the quickness of thought.
Scarcely had they effected their escape from the frightful peril that
threatened them, when the mass of waters burst forth with a horrible uproar.
All eyes were bent towards the huge heaps of logs in the gorge
below. The tumultuous burst of the waters instantly swept away every
FORCE OF THE WATERS. 101
object that opposed their progress, and rushed in foaming waves among the
timber that every where blocked up the passage. Presently a slow, heavy
motion was perceived in the mass of logs ; one might have imagined that
some mighty monster lay convulsively writhing beneath them, struggling
with a fearful energy to extricate himself from the crushing weight. As
the waters rose, this movement increased; the mass of timber extended
in all directions, appearing to become more and more entangled each
moment; the logs bounced against each other, thrusting aside, demersing,
or raising into the air those with which they came in contact:—it
seemed as if they were waging a war of destruction, such as ancient authors
describe the efforts of the Titans, the foamings of whose wrath
might to the eye of the painter have been represented by the angry curlings
of the waters, while the tremulous and rapid motions of the logs,
which at times reared themselves almost perpendicularly, might by the
poet have been taken for the shakings of the confounded and discomfited
giants.
Now the rushing element filled up the gorge to its brim. The logs,
once under way, rolled, reared, tossed and tumbled amid the foam, as
they were carried along. Many of the smaller trees broke across, from
others great splinters were sent up, and all were in some degree seamed
and scarred. Then in tumultuous majesty swept along the mingled
wreck, the current being now increased to such a pitch, that the logs as they
were dashed against the rocky shores, resounded like the report of distant
artillery, or the angry rumblings of the thunder. Onward it rolls, the
emblem of wreck and ruin, destruction and chaotic strife. It seemed
to me as if I witnessed the rout of a vast army, surprised, overwhelmed,
and overthrown. The roar of the cannon, the groans of the dying, and
the shouts of the avengers, were thundering through my brain; and
amid the frightful confusion of the scene, there came over my spirit a
melancholy feeling, which had not entirely vanished at the end of many
days.
In a few hours, almost all the timber that had lain heaped in the
rocky gorge, was floating in the great pond of the millers; and as we
walked homewards, we talked of the Force of the Waters.