TJie Timber SiLpply of North America. 157 



Choppers are very particular with the edge of the axe, keeping it keen 

 but never ground thin, the shouklers being sedulously preserved to 

 throw off the chip at each stroke. Sometimes a man is employed as 

 sharpener to the whole camp.. But as a rule each man prefers to keep 

 his own tool in order. Sunday is the great day for such odd jobs ; 

 such as repairing sleds, clothes, boots, &c., &c. 



Before commencing to chop, the tree must be examined carefully to 

 accurately ascertain its natural fall, so that when it falls it neither 

 damages the timber nor disarranges the work. Tliis is important, as 

 trees of such height, if cut irrespective of incline, split long before 

 suiiiciently weakened to snap clean off the butt, a mishap destroying 

 the best part of the log. Should a tree break in the middle the 

 choppers square the one end and the sawyers the other. However, 

 it is seldom a tree falls awkwardly, as the direction of the fall is well 

 calculated and carried out with great precision. 



Having learned the necessary preliminaries previous to commencing, 

 the chopper^who does not confine himself to any particular distance 

 from the ground, but at such a point as best suits his own ease and 

 convenience, usually about eighteen or twenty inches from the 

 ground — begins to chop away until the monarch which has stood 

 defiantly the hurricane for centuries shows symptoms of weakening, 

 by oscillating. When this is observed the experienced chopper seeks 

 a safe retreat while the tree inoves away, steadily increasing in speed 

 as it nears the ground, where it falls with a crash, awakening all the 

 dormant echoes of the uninterrupted quiet every where prevailing, 

 reverberating from tree to tree under a clear frosty atmosphere, the 

 sound dies away in the lone distance with a moan. 



ToUowing the choppers are sawyers preparing the trees into logs for 

 transit to the nearest stream. A suitable spot is selected as a " roll-a- 

 way," where the logs are fixed on a sled to which a team of oxen — oxen 

 are preferred to horses — is hitched and away glides the trail over the 

 hard crisp snow lying on the track. A pair of ordinary good horses 

 will haul with ease a log containing 3,500 feet of inch lumber. The 

 use of the sled under the end of the log is obvious ; it facilitates the 

 removal and slides over any unseen obstruction lying beneath the 

 snow. 



When the logs are not drawn directly to a saw mill yard, they are 

 collected on the sides of streams awaiting freshets to remove the ice 

 and swell the river to allow a •' drive." On small rivers the logs are 

 hurled in one by one as they have often to pass falls and rapids. At 

 such places " jams " are of frequent occurrence by the accumulation of 

 several hundred logs. To prevent "jams" requires great expertness and 

 agility. Breaking up a "jam" is a dangerous and arduous undertaking 

 often accompanied with loss of life. The men employed keeping 



