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The Drowned Log

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Don’t be fooled by the elegant blue lines on the map: even an ice-free river could be treacherous. The famous rapids below Ekaterinoslav rendered the Dnieper (Dnipro) River unnavigable, but many rivers were plagued with rapids, rocks, shoals, and sandbars. Shipwrecks were common. Many men drowned, and a great many logs sank to the riverbed.

In 1802 an ambitious Polish landowner ran the Dnestr River in a handmade boat. In so doing he became the empire’s first famous whitewater rafter and opened a major river to timber shipping.

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  1. Log Stories Kelly O'Neill