The road was finished now, but some of the machines still had work ahead
of them. In fact, road work is never ended.
All summer long, tractors pull mowing machines beside the highways,
cutting the grass. Brush and small trees must be kept cleared away so
that drivers can see ahead. In winter, the motor graders and the snow
plows can keep the road clear. But in places where heavy snow piles up
into drifts, caterpillar tractors often push special snow plows that eat
through the drifts with powerful whirling blades. With one motion these
plows dig out the snow and throw it off to one side of the road.
[Illustration]
The caterpillar treads work better in snow than wheels with tires. So
the “cats” are used all winter long in the Far North. There they even
pull whole trailer trains on runners. The one in the picture is hauling
Muskeg schooners, which are really trailer houses on sleds. Muskeg is an
Indian word for swamp. The cats pull the schooners over frozen,
snow-covered swamps.
You may wonder why anyone wants to use a trailer home in the roadless
wastes of the Far North. The fact is that men work there the year round,
prospecting for oil. When they think they have located oil there or
anywhere else, well-drilling machinery goes to work.