Their wages amount to about
two dollars a day, exclusive of board. They have good living in the
woods, the provisions, which are furnished on an ample scale, being
served by male cooks.
While on the subject of lumber, which may possibly interest some
people who wish to redeem the fortunes they have lately lost in Maine
lumber, I ought not to leave unmentioned the valuable cargoes of it
which are floated down the Mississippi. When coming up in the boat I
was astonished to see such stupendous rafts. Large logs are
transported by being made into rafts. At a landing where the boat
stopped, I on one occasion attempted to estimate the number of logs
comprised in one of these marine novelties, and found it to be about
eight hundred; the logs were large, and were worth from five to six
dollars each. Here then was a raft of timber worth at least $4000.
They are navigated by about a dozen men, with large paddles attached
at either end of the raft, which serve to propel and steer. Often, in
addition to the logs, the rafts are laden with valuable freights of
sawed lumber.
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