On the British Columbia coast a timber cruiser's report comes in the
same category as a bank statement or a chartered accountant's audit of
books; that is to say, it is unquestionable, an authentic statement of
fact.
Within the boundaries defined by the four stakes of the limit
Hollister owned there stood, according to the original cruising
estimate, eight million feet of merchantable timber, half fir, half
red cedar. The Douglas fir covered the rocky slopes and the cedar
lined the gut of a deep hollow which split the limit midway. It was
classed as a fair logging chance, since from that corner which dipped
into the flats of the Toba a donkey engine with its mile-long arm of
steel cable could snatch the logs down to the river, whence they would
be floated to the sea and towed to the Vancouver sawmills.
Hollister had been guided by the custom of the country. He had put a
surplus fund of cash into this property in the persuasion that it
would resell at a profit, or that it could ultimately be logged at a
still greater profit. And this persuasion rested upon the cruising
estimate and the uprightness of "Lewis and Company, Specialists in
B.
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