..." Plenty of
water twelve months a year to give free power; a flat made to order for
reservoir or log pond; a complete and effective blockade of both
branches of the river which came down from a country richly timbered! It
was one of the spots Scattergood had dreamed of.
Scattergood knew perfectly well he could not stop a log from passing his
dam. Nor could he shut off the stream. Any dam he built must have a
sluice which could be opened for the passage of timber, and all timber
was entitled to "natural water." But, as he well knew, "natural water"
was not always enough. A dam at this point would raise the level on the
bars of the flat so that logs would not jam, and a log which used the
high water caused by the dam must pay for it. What Scattergood had in
mind was a dam and boom company. It was his project to improve the
river, to boom backwaters, to dynamite ledges, to make the river
passable to logs in spring and fall. It was his idea that such a
company, in addition to demanding pay for the use of "improvements,"
could contract with lumbermen up the river to drive their logs.... And a
mill at this point! Scattergood fairly licked his lips as he thought of
the millions upon millions of feet of spruce to be sawed into lumber.
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