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multiply and fill that eerie, subterranean world.

It is true there are regular beaten paths, roadways, and half-natural staircases hewn in the rock; yet nothing would be more easy than to lose one's self in this darksome, forbidding place, with its ten miles of regular walk and its hundreds upon hundreds of miles of possible wanderings in a darkness so appalling that no writer could convey an idea of its thick and almost "feelable" horror -rendered yet more dreadful by the mysterious winding reaches of the river Lesse, which is strangely hushed and stilled in its long course through the heart of the mountain.

Saloon after saloon is visited,

to climb the tortuous and winding path, assisted here and there by rough steps cut in the rock. Climbing, climbing always. We no longer notice the strange chill of the atmosphere; we no longer experience that almost irresistible desire to stray from the beaten path, which is sharply defined by the lamps of the guides ahead. We grow warm with exertion, but pause at last in the most fearsome scene it has ever been our lot to witness. We are on a ledge perhaps forty feet

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THE RIVER EMERGES AT LENGTH INTO THE LIGHT OF DAY.

until the series becomes almost monotonous. There are the same stalactites and stalagmites apparently; the same blinding flash of magnesium flame; the same curious echoes and re-echoes of human voices and footsteps; the same gleam of light upon the sinister surface of the silent river.

But we are coming to the most amazing place of all in this strange world. By this time we are in very truth "in the heart of the mountain," having walked miles upon miles. Now we are beginning

wide-a long ledge coming out from the dark and rocky sides of a wall, where is established a dimly lighted buffet. Here Walloon girls have wine, beer, sandwiches, cordials, and other refreshments on sale; and there are seats and benches scattered about

in the semi-darkness.

But the ledge falls sheer away in a terrible precipice nearly 300 feet deep, whilst over our heads soars the mighty dome of rock at least another 200 feet high. We go timidly across the ledge, and peer into the dreadful abyss. Far, far down below, we see lights gliding slowly along, apparently in boats. Presently both above and below in simultaneous concert comes a royal display of magnesium flash-blazing, long drawn. out, appalling in revelation.

THE TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE

We see now, as we lean over breathless, that away down there in that frightful chasm the river Lesse flows silently, broad and dark, and with boats upon its inky bosom wherein are groups of Walloon girls whose quaint songs of love and war presently float up to us, until we wonder whether we are asleep or awake, whether this is some Stygian flood of Greek mythology materialized, and whether we have really passed away from the world we knew.

Remember, the now huge subterranean river, flowing through a chamber nearly 500 feet high and at least as long, is buried away in the very heart of the monstrous pyramid of the limestone peak we beheld from Éprave station! Having refreshed ourselves with a glass of wine and some sandwiches, we begin to descend, and at length arrive at the brink of the underground river, where we are received by an old man whom visitors of all nationalities have with common consent named “Charon.” The two boats

are in waiting-big, heavy scows that may be poled by pressing on the rocky sides.

Down here, we are told, enormous quantities of prehistoric remains were. found, both of gigantic men and animals. The river, too, and more particularly the stagnant pools formed by it in various chambers, contain eyeless fish of a kind. peculiar to caves. We take our seats in the big boats with an upward glance. into the vast darkness above us, where, hundreds of feet high, barely penetrating the awful gloom, we see faintly the lights of the refreshment buffet we visited a few minutes previously.

As the boats glide along the subterranean river, the girl guides continue singing in order that we may get the effect of the peculiar echoes which are repeated and multiplied in a most peculiar manner above and around us in the in

powerful flares and Bengal lights; and tense gloom. Some of the men burn some of these are even shot flaming a couple of hundred feet high, in order to let our eyes follow as far as may be possible the enormous height of this the greatest of all the chambers in the Grottoes of Han.

After a time we fancy we see, far away in the distance, a faint silver speck. Now and then the enormous rocky roof almost comes down upon us, and we bend low in the boat to escape it. Or again the roof soars upward until our eyes cannot follow it. Meanwhile the "silver speck" is growing larger and larger, and we see with a curious sensation of relief that here at last, after all these hours, we are emerging into daylight and God's beautiful world of sunshine, flowers, trees, warmth, and sweet air.

There is not a single person who ever took the lengthy tour of these enormous caves who did not experience the same emerging with the Lesse into the outer sensation of intense relief and joy at world. It is just here, near the exit refreshment kiosk, that the head guide fires off a revolver, that we may hear the greatest of all the echo effects, the multiplied reverberations lasting at least three minutes.

There is one singular thing about the long-lost Lesse. You may navigate it in. the heavy scow for a few hundred yards from the exit, for it is calm and placid, through which it has passed. But, a litas though tamed by the terrible place tle further along, the deep "depression," so to speak, of the river appears to pass away, and gradually it begins to ripple and grow shallow, until at length it races faster and faster, tumbling and bubbling and foaming through high flowery banks or lovely daisy-studded meadows, to its junction with the Meuse near Dinant, on its final way to the sea.

The big sticks are lifted from the boom (at right) and laid in the cradle (at left).

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Log Rafts of the Pacific

Mammoth Cribs of Timber Towed Across the Ocean

U

By WALDON FAWCETT

Special Correspondent, THE TECHNICAL WORLD MAGAZINE

NQUESTIONABLY the most picturesque method of transporting logs known to the industrial world is that which has of late years been employed on the Pacific Coast, and which is now to be introduced. in trans-oceanic traffic. Rafting is a means of conveyance universally adopted in the lumbering industry in all countries from time immemorial; but, as followed on the Western coast, rafting attains a dignity heretofore undreamed of, because of the enormous size of the cribs and the fact that lengthy deep-sea voyages are made in all kinds of weather.

Exclusively Pacific

The giant log rafts of the Pacific would be impracticable of construction.

in any other part of the world. For one thing, it would be impossible to obtain elsewhere timbers of the requisite size and length in sufficient numbers to form rafts of the size of these; and, secondly, the price which such logs would command in almost any other quarter of the globe would probably prohibit the taking of such risks as are involved in this unique method of transportation.

The Pacific Northwest, the marvelous forests of which contain upward of onefourth of all the standing merchantable timber in the United States, is manifestly the only source of supply qualified to furnish material for the giant rafts. Here alone may be found the towering firs, standing from 100 to 200 feet without a limb, whence come the spars and piling

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of which these great rafts are made up. Yet, strangely enough, the idea of the monster log raft did not originate in the territory which has been the scene of its development.

The inventor, Mr. Hugh R. Robertson, was a resident of St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, when he first conceived the idea of a log raft larger in every way than anything which had been built up to that time. The fundamental principle upon which he relied to make it practicable to navigate these gigantic cribs, was found in the novel form of the craftthe cigar shape-which remains to-day their chief distinctive characteristic.

In 1887, Mr. Robertson built at Joggins, Nova Scotia, his pioneer raft of this type-a log structure 560 feet long and 35 feet deep. Like many other first ventures, however, it came to grief while en route to New York.

The raft builder persisted, however, in his belief in his new theory; and as soon as possible, built another log structure which justified his expectations by making a successful journey of 700 miles in ten days. From the date of the inception of the idea of the big raft, Mr. Robertson had looked upon the north Pacific Coast with its exceptional timber resources, as an ideal theater of operations. So, when an opportunity came to

ONE OF THE GREAT RAFTS, WITH DERRICK, TUG, ETC.

dispose of his rights for the Atlantic Coast, he availed himself of it and migrated to the Pacific Slope.

The Cradle

One very notable improvement in construction methods which Mr. Robertson made after establishing himself on the Pacific Coast, is found in the invention of the cradle, a supporting structure, in which every large raft is now built. The rafts built in Nova Scotia were constructed resting obliquely on the shore on timber foundations, and were launched only with the greatest difficulty.

CRADLE IN WHICH PACIFIC LOG RAFTS ARE CONSTRUCTED.

problem of getting the great bundle of big sticks into the water quickly and without damage to the raft, is admirably solved by the present-day floating cradle.

Crudely described, the cradle might be said to consist of a long series of half circles of wood placed side by side, securely bolted together and held in place by ribs of thoroughly seasoned timber. In appearance, the cradle looks much like the skeleton frame of a great ship - it is longer than the biggest ocean liner-and this resemblance is further

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carried out by the fact that the span of the semicircles of wood decreases as either end of the cradle is approached, just as a ship tapers toward stem and stern.

Building Operations

The cradle, which serves in raft building a purpose similar to that of a building berth in shipbuilding, is anchored at the edge of a river close to the forest from which the logs are taken. Time is thus saved in assembling the material; and inasmuch as it requires from eight to ten months to build a giant raft under

[blocks in formation]
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LAUNCHING ONE OF THE GIANT RAFTS FROM CRADLE.

the most favorable conditions, this economy is important. The logs may be stored on the river bank close at hand, or floated down the stream and held in a boom close beside the cradle, into which they are swung one by one by means of a derrick operated by a donkey engine. Usually a workman rides on top of each of the big sticks as it is lifted into the air in the clutches of the powerful grappling irons, and is enabled to direct its course to the exact location which it is desired to have it occupy in the raft. The arrangement of the binding chains. progresses simultaneously with the placing of the log lengths. The chains, which are to encircle the mass at intervals of twelve feet, are laid down at the

tend entirely through the raft and at either side join the encircling chains, first mentioned, thus enclosing the logs in a complete net of iron.

The building cradle-and, by the way, it represents the heaviest initial investment of the raft builder's equipment, costing many thousands of dollars - is anchored in deep water so that it may not only rise and fall with the tide, but may, without danger of grounding, sink lower and lower into the water as the weight of logs increases.

Launching and Towing

When the raft is fully completed, it is launched by dividing the cradle lengthwise into two sections, which, when pulled apart, allow the log leviathan to slip into

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