The Drive

Felled timber is taken down the Mattagami, a Northern Ontario River. The men who guide the logs on “the drive” are “famous for their dexterity” as poling and burling are demonstrated. In an amusing sequence the men are shown as “proverbial for their appetite.” The independence that workers enjoyed at this time and described in Ian Radforth’s history of the industry is evident. The cutting of the logs into planks and boards comes next. The product eventually finds its way to a lumber yard in Toronto, to be sold. Ontario’s “treasureland” of forest, mine and stream helps make Canada prosperous, the film concludes.