No. 112.] 809 



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The -winter season was chiefly devoted to preparing and col- 

 lecting these materials, and the whole force of the teams, and 

 labor of the country, was put in requisition for the object. The 

 timber was gathered ia coves or low marshes, protected from the 

 winds and floods of early spring, and there formed into immense 

 rafts. Deals or thick planks of pine, and oak staves were ulti- 

 mately manufactured, and exported to the same market. These 

 articles were arranged in cribs, and transported with the rafrs or 

 piled upon its surface. The rafts were often of great size. They 

 were propelled through the lake by sails and oars, and were borne 

 by the current and tide, down the Sorel and St. Lawrence rivers. 

 In passing the rapids of the former, the rafts were partially taken 

 asunder. The strong current? of the St, Lawrence, impelled 

 them rapidly down that strsam, but the turbulent tides near 

 Quebec, often swept them beyond the havens of that city, with 

 great danger, and at times a total loss. These catastrophes were 

 not unfrequent. The average price at Quebec, of oak timber, 

 was 40 cents per cubic foot, and that of pine, about 20 cents. 

 The timber cost delivered upon the shores of Lake Champlain, 

 from 6 to 8 cents, and the transportation from thence to Quebec, 

 was about 2J cents in addition, per cubic foot.* The profit of 

 this trafic seems to have been exorbitant, yet singularly, it proved 

 to most who engaged in it, unfortunate and disastrous. 



Similar oak timber, at the present day, exported to New- York, 

 through the canal, subject to far heavier disbursement, is worth 

 only 27 and oO cts., in that market. The magnitude and activity 

 of this business rapidly exhausted the masses of timber conti- 

 guous to tlie lake, and spars and timber were eventually trans- 

 ported from forests fiCteen miles in the interior, to the place of 

 rafting. Small rafts uf spars and dock sticks, formed of the 

 scatterqd relics of the original forests, are still annually collected 

 and carried to the southurn market. 



No decked vessel, it is stated, navigated Lake Champlain fifty 

 years ago. The insignificant commerce which at that period ex 

 isted upon its waters, was conducted in cutters, piraguas, and 

 batteaux. Few wharves had then been constructed. 



• I ora lodebUd to Nf r. Jumct PiUIiig, cluofly, for lb« dc U!'i of 'Jb* Icmbcr trmie. 



