nd the lowering of it.

The purpose of the dam in this new country did not puzzle him in the
least, but its presence bewildered him. Such constructions are often
thrown across logging streams at proper intervals in order that the
operator may be independent of the spring freshets. When he wishes to
"drive" his logs to the mouth of the stream, he first accumulates a head
of water behind his dams, and then, by lifting the gates, creates an
artificial freshet sufficient to float his timber to the pool formed by
the next dam below. The device is common enough; but it is expensive.
People do not build dams except in the certainty of some years of
logging, and quite extensive logging at that. If the stream happens to
be navigable, the promoter must first get an Improvement Charter from a
board of control appointed by the State. So Thorpe knew that he had to
deal, not with a hand-to-mouth-timber-thief, but with a great company
preparing to log the country on a big scale.

He continued his journey. At noon he came to another and similar
structure. The pine forest had yielded to knolls of hardwood separated
by swamp-holes of blackthorn. Here he left his pack and pushed ahead
in light marching order. About eight miles above the first dam, and
eighteen from the bend of the river, he ran into a "slashing" of the
year before. The decapitated stumps were already beginning to turn brown
with weather, the tangle of tops and limbs was partially concealed by
poplar growths and wild raspberry vines. Parenthetically, it may be
remarked that the promptitude with which these growths succeed the
cutting of the pine is an inexplicable marvel. Clear forty acres at
random in the very center of a pine forest, without a tract of poplar
within an hundred miles; the next season will bring up the fresh shoots.
Some claim that blue jays bring the seeds in their crops. Others incline
to the theory that the creative elements lie dormant in the soil,
needing only the sun to start them to life. Final speculation is
impossible, but the fact stands.

To Thorpe this particular clearing became at once of the greatest
interest. He scrambled over and through the ugly debris which for a
year or two after logging operations cumbers the ground. By a rather
prolonged search he found what he sought,--the "section corners" of
the tract, on which the government surveyor had long ago marked the
"descriptions." A glance at the map confirmed his suspicions. The
slashi