The direct cable is attached to the front of the "turn", and the return cable to the rear end.

By winding the direct cable on its drum, the "turn" is hauled in.

The return cable is used to haul back the end of the direct cable, and also, in case of a jam, to pull back and straighten out the turn.
Instead of a return cable a horse is often used to haul out the direct cable.

Signaling from the upper end of the skidway to the engineer is done by a wire connected to the donkey's whistle, by an electric bell, or by telephone.
Sometimes these donkey engines are in relays, one engine hauling a turn of logs to within reach of the next one, which passes it on to the next until the siding is reached.
[Illustration: Fig.27.Steam Skidder at Work.

Grant County, Arkansas.] Where there are steep canons to be crossed, a wire trolley may be stretched and the great logs carried over suspended from it.
In the South a complicated machine called a steam skidder, Fig.