To run logs down a “chute.”
1884. Through it, also, flow many navigable rivers, whose banks are not too abrupt to prevent easy handling of logs, which are often chuted down from the lofty ridges directly into the water, and rafted from far inland at trifling expense.—E. Ingersoll, From the Fraser to the Columbia, Harper’s Mag., lxviii. p. 872/1 (May). (N.E.D.)
