key-log

One of the foremen of Benbow Camp -- the best ax wielder of the crew -- ran out on the boom to a point near the middle of the frothing stream and began cutting the key-log.

Ruth Fielding in the Great Northwest Or, The Indian Girl Star of the Movies Alice B. Emerson

Moncrossen, Stromberg, Fallon, and one other to search for the key-log.

The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest 1921

I landed on the island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened, would send the heap into the water.

The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897

I landed on the island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened, would send the heap into the water.

Mrs. Falchion, Complete Gilbert Parker 1897

I landed on the island and watched with great interest the men as they pried, twisted and tumbled the pile to get at the key-log which, found and loosened, would send the heap into the water.

Mrs. Falchion, Volume 2. Gilbert Parker 1897

No wonder that the under boss asked Rose's advice as to the key-log.

Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

Rose had created a small sensation, on one occasion, by pointing out to the under boss the key-log in a jam.

Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

When he's ridin 'a log near the falls at high water, or cuttin' the key-log in a jam, he ain't in no place for blasphemious swearin '; jest a little easy, perlite' damn 'is 'bout all he can resk, if he don't want to git drownded an' hev his ghost walkin 'the river-banks till kingdom come.

Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

Or, if they had inclined toward a jolly and adventurous career, they could have joined one of the various jams or "bungs," stimulated by the thought that any one of them might be a key-log, holding for a time the entire mass in its despotic power.

Homespun Tales Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin 1889

Moncrossen selected his crew for the drive -- white-water men, whose boast it was that they never had walked a foot from the timber to the mills; bateau men, who laughed in the face of death as they swarmed over a jam; key-log men, who scorned dynamite; bend watchers, whose duty it is to stay awake through the long, warm days and prevent the formation of jams as the drive shoots by -- each selected with an eye to previous experience and physical fitness.

The Promise A Tale of the Great Northwest 1921