Every autumn the Company found itself suddenly in easy circumstances.
At any moment that Thorpe had chosen to be content with the progress
made, he could have, so to speak, declared dividends with his partner.
Instead of undertaking more improvements, for part of which he
borrowed some money, he could have divided the profits of the
season's cut. But this he was not yet ready to do.

He had established five more camps, he had acquired over a hundred
and fifty million more of timber lying contiguous to his own, he
had built and equipped a modern high-efficiency mill, he had
constructed a harbor break-water and the necessary booms, he had
bought a tug, built a boarding-house. All this costs money. He
wished now to construct a logging railroad. Then he promised
himself and Wallace that they would be ready to commence paying
operations.

The logging railroad was just then beginning to gain recognition.
A few miles of track, a locomotive, and a number of cars consisting
uniquely of wheels and "bunks," or cross beams on which to chain
the logs, and a fairly well-graded right-of-way comprised the
outfit. Its use obviated the necessity of driving the river--always
an expensive operation. Often, too, the decking at the skidways
could be dispensed with; and the sleigh hauls, if not entirely
superseded for the remote districts, were entirely so in the
country for a half mile on either side of the track, and in any
case were greatly shortened. There obtained, too, the additional
advantage of being able to cut summer and winter alike. Thus, the
plant once established, logging by railroad was not only easier but
cheaper. Of late years it has come into almost universal use in