of the United States of North America, 21 



still remain both in Canada and in the United States ; the 

 Alleghany Mountains, as well as other large tracts of country 

 towards the north and west, which are yet uninhabited, being 

 still covered with dense and unexplored forests. 



The timber trade of the United States and of Canada, from 

 the quantity of wood which is required for home consumption 

 and exportation, is a source of employment and emolument 

 to a great mass of the population. It is carried on to a greater 

 or less extent on all American rivers, but the Mississippi and 

 the St Lawrence are more especially famous for it. The chief 

 raftsmen, under whose direction the timber expeditions on 

 these rivers are conducted, are generally persons of great in- 

 telligence, and often of considerable wealth. Sometimes these 

 men, for the purpose of obtaining wood, purchase a piece of 

 l^nd, which they sell after it has been cleared ; but more ge- 

 nerally they purchase only the timber from the proprietors of 

 the land on which it grows. The chief raftsman and his de- 

 tachment of workmen repair to the forest about the month of 

 November, and are occupied during the whole of the winter 

 months in felling trees, dressing them into logs, and dragging 

 them with teams of oxen on the hardened snow, with which the 

 country is then covered, to the nearest stream. They live 

 during this period in temporary wooden huts. About the 

 middle of May, when the ice leaves the rivers, the logs of 

 timber that have been prepared and hauled down during 

 winter, are launched into the stream, and being formed into 

 rafts, are floated to their destination. The rafts are furnished 

 with masts and sails, and are steered by means of long oars, 

 which project in front, as well as behind them : wooden houses 

 are built on them for the accommodation of the crews and 

 their families. I have several times, in the course of the trips 

 which I made on the St Lawrence, counted upwards of thirty 

 men working the steering oars of the large rafts on that river, 

 from which some idea may be formed of the number of their 

 inhabitants. Those rafts are brought down the American 

 rivers from distances varying from one hundred to twelve 

 hundred miles, and six months are often occupied in making 

 the passage. When it is at all possible, they moor them dur*- 

 ing the night in the still water ai th« edge of the riVer, but 



