32 FOREST commissioner's report. 



up through it, we were thinking more of coming across some 

 brook than anything else when suddenly to our great delight 

 we ran full tilt upon a spring. A little brook ran from it» 

 but we were at the fountain head — could look way down into 

 the ijap in the rocks through which the water issued clear 

 and cold from the sides of the mountain. Such an illustration 

 of the wholesome bounty of nature in this northern country 

 it was well worth half a day's thirst to obtain. 



In this connection I am reminded of an incident in the 

 same general line that points a moral too valuable and of too 

 wide application to l)e left always to the chances of word of 

 mouth narration. It occurred in the spring of 1893, during 

 the progress of the first job I ever undertook for the State, 

 while I was measuring logs and counting rings on the drive 

 of one of our smaller rivers. The lower landings of logs 

 were just being rolled in, and they, with the big wing jams 

 along the river, were the scene of my work. I boarded dur- 

 ing my stay with Uncle Billy "Jones," a very fine old gen- 

 tleman, wdio besides performing all the ordinary duties of 

 citizenship, serves the State in the unenviable capacity of 

 game warden. It was in April, the river was at flood pitch 

 and running brooks were everywhere. A man could ask 

 nothing l)etterto slake his thirst with than that water just out 

 of the snow banks of the neighboring mountains. 



Now Uncle Billy had a well. It stood under the cover of 

 one of his numerous open sheds, where the hens and the pigs 

 had free run. It was just outside the limits of the barn yard. 

 The sink spout discharged in its immediate vicinity, and the 

 various other sources of contamination attendins; a human 

 hal)itation stood conveniently near. And the water showed the 

 effects of it. When a little of it was taken into a glass, it 

 appealed to a majority of the five senses. Now Uncle Billy 

 noticed me one day drinking out of the brooks, and he 

 remonstrated with me for so doing. "We don't think much 

 of that brook water," he said. "We don't think its fit to drink ; 

 but we've got a well up to the house that gives us the every 



