RAFT, a floating platform, usually com posed of wooden logs or planks, fastened to gether by nails, spikes or cordage, and used either as a vehicle of travel and for the carriage of goods, or more generally for the purpose of transporting by river, lake or sea the materials composing •the raft from the place of its con struction to a market for sale. In all probability the raft was the first human method of travel on water, next to floating on a large branch or tree-trunk, the use of which would naturally suggest the raft, just as a raft, with sail of skin or other material raised to catch the wind, would suggest the first rude sail boat or ship. Rafts have been in use in all historic ages, and doubtless far back in the prehistoric period, but they reached their most general use after the settlement of North America, when the vast forests were being cleared by settlers, and the raft offered almost the only method by which. the pioneer on the Ohio or Mississippi could reach the settlements on those rivers, dispose of his surplus products, and buy some of the comforts and perhaps luxuries to be obtained in the towns. The steamboat has almost en tirely done away with the raft as a means of travel, but rafting is still the chief method of conveying the lumber product of northwestern forests to market, and immense rafts are sn-7 times sent by sea from Maine to New Yolk or Boston. On the Pacific Coast also the rafting
business is most extensive. In the fall of 1902, a monster raft 700 feet long, 53 feet wide, 12 feet from the' water's edge to the top, and drawing feet of water was safely towed 700 miles from Columbia River to San Fran cisco. The logs were 120 feet long, and from 12 to 20 inches in diameter, and there all 7,000 pieces, valued at $60,000. The con struction of a raft of this size is a vast under taking. A great °cradle" of heavy timbers is built on a slough connected with the Columbia River. A row of piling is driven in deep water, and the frame of the cradle floats up and down on the row of piling, and is held in place by it. A large scow with a derrick is anchored be side the cradle. Log-booms or small rafts are towed to it, and the logs are lifted by the der rick into the cradle, where they are fastened with chains and cables, from 80 to 100 tons of chain being used on one raft. When the raft' is finished the keys that held the parts of the cradle together are drawn, the side of the cradle is pulled away, and the raft floats out on the water. Tugboats draw it into and down the Columbia, and out to sea on its voyage to G the Golden ate.