Show bees FOREST BOTTOM OF mississippi STREWN WITH LOGS AND LUMBER professional diver declares bed of river Is like a dense thicket firm planning to dredge for wood burlington la the professional diver eugene fearls who has been searching the bottom of the river in tretis of burlington for a missing pro peller wheel has encountered much difficulty in gaining a solid footing on the bed of the river he states that the sand and mud forming the bottom is thickly strewn with logs and lum her that it Is almost like trying to tread a dense thicket to make his way about and there is no solid ground to walk upon he says the logs and lum her stick up in alt directions and are wedged in among each other so tight ly that it Is impossible to push them aside the report of diver fearls cor ro borates that of other divera here and elsewhere that the bed of the mis river is a forest of logs and lumber that have accumulated dur ing the long years of lumber and log ratting on the upper river it is stated that the chippewa and other tribu baries of the mississippi in the north down which most of the lumber has been rafted is densely sown with lost lumber and the proposition has been made that companies be formed to recover the timber in the present day of falling of the lumber supply it is thought that now burled in the mud of the river bed is immensely valuable and at least one firm is said to be contemplating a dredging tor it it is well known that lumber under water pre serves its integrity and after many years comes out perfectly free from decay all that la needed is to take it out pile it up and dry it when it becomes the best of lumber in the olden days when lumber was plentiful and there was no thought of a scarcity in timber the rafters were very careless about their cargoes and the loss of a thousand logs more or less did not bother them much lumber and logs especially it green soon become waterlogged and sink to the bottom of the stream where the become imbedded in the mud ana sand sometimes forming dangerous snags to tear out the bottom of pass ing vessels it will be one of the tasks of the government when constructing the proposed six foot channel in the upper mississippi to clear the river bed of this material and it Is pos sible when the work begins salvage companies will be formed to take over the planks and logs fished up by the dredgers |