27 



slender instrument^ yet, from the dexterity with which it is 

 used, answers the purpose admirably. This labour is usually 

 performed by taskwork, of one hundred yards each man per 

 day, which expert workmen will complete in six hours. Tlie 

 underwood being now removed, the larger trees arc then 

 felled by the axe, as even with the ground as possible, the 

 task being also at this work one hundred yards per day to 

 each labourer; although this is more difficult, from the 

 number of hard woods growing here, which on faihire of 



the axe are removed by the application of fire. 



The trunks of these trees, although many of them are va- 

 luable for different purposes^ such as Bullet-tree^ Ironwood 



■ 



Redwood^ Sapodilla^ &c. are thrown away as useless^ ui 

 they happen to be adjacent to some creek or small river 

 which may intersect the road ; in that case they are applied 

 to the constructing of bridges across the same ; which are 

 frequently of considerable size, and require great labour to 

 make them of sufficient strength to bear such immense loads 

 as are brought over them. The quantity and distance of 

 road to be cut each season depends on the situation of the 

 body of mahogany trees, which, if much dispersed or scat- 

 tered, will increase the labour and extent of road-cutting; and 

 it not unfrequently happens that miles of road and many 

 bridges are made to a single tree, and which tree may ulti- 

 mately yield but one log. The roads being cleared of all 

 the brushwood, still require the labour of hoes, pickaxes 

 and sledge-hammers, to level the hillocks and to break the 

 rocks, also such of the remaining stumps as might impede 

 the wheels that are hereafter to pass over them. 



The roads being now all ready, which may generally be 

 effected in the month of December, the cross-cutting, as it is 

 technically called, commences. This is merely dividing cross- 

 wise, by means of the saw, each mahogany tree into logs, 

 according to its length: and it often occurs, that while 



