I 



ATTEMPTS AT A BUSH SETTLEMENT. 



luxury of two chairs in tbe sitting room, and a rouo;]i beJstead of split cedar, with a 

 small tabic and one chair in the bed room, throiiyh every wall of which the wind 

 "roved wild and free" through the open lath-work. "While supper was preparing, I 

 fell to work, hammer in liand, to enclose the bed room by nailing up a most pictur- 

 esque tapistry of buffalo, bear, and wolf skin robes, and blankets ; and ere our venison 

 steaks and patridges were on the table, I had completed our most Cruso-like apart- 

 ment, which proved so comfortable, tliat I covered the walls of the other room in the 

 same manner next morning. 



Though it was late ere we got to rest, I was up early next morning, anxious to see 

 the beauties of the situation of which I had heard so much ; nor was I disappointed, 

 for beautiful it certainly was — situated in the bosom of a small bay, two of which, 

 separated by a ridge of moss-covered granite running out like a promontory, formed 

 the bottom of a beautiful, clear, inland lake, about three miles long and one broad, 

 with gently rising banks here and there broken by abrupt rocks bursting through the 

 gentle acclivities, breaking the monotony and giving a picturesque boldness to the 

 view. After breakfast, we sallied out on a tour of observation ; and were so channed 

 with the situation aud scenery, that we at once resolved to take up eight hundred 

 acres next Capt. II.'s, including the adjoining bay and a fine level valley, covered with 

 the choicest timber, stretching from it to Bald Lake ; while the beautiful hill separa- 

 rating the two bays, offered a most romantic site for a house. 



On our return, we dispatched a scow with a message for my servants and baggage 

 from Peterboro', with provisions and all other requisites for a winter's campaign in the 

 back woods. Mr. A., wlio came out with us, took up four hundred acres on the lake 

 just above us, and returned in the scow to get his own supplies and make the neces- 

 sary arrangements for us both. The w^eathcr was remarkably fine, and we spent most 

 of our time roaming over our new estate, shooting patridges on tbe shore and wild 

 ducks on the lake, and building castles in the air everywhere, till the arrival of our 

 servants and baggage. Then commenced the hurry and bustle of unpacking, and all 

 the preparations for a first attack on the primeval forest. 



So impatient were we to commence, that, ere our own servants arrived, I made a 

 contract with two men who came in searcli of a job, to clear ten acres in the valley 

 at the head of tlie bay, at whicli they were at work when my people arrived, but who 

 obstinately refused to undertake to cut all the timber level with the ground as I 

 wanted ; so I had to let them have their own way, resolved when they were done to 

 cut all the stumps dow^n, that they might not annoy the eye like those which I had 

 seen all over the country. But they willingly agreed to leave as many ornamental 

 clumps of trees standing as I chose. Ha\ing selected the hill as the site for my 

 house, I got a shantee erected below it on the shore, for the accommodation of my 

 people, and set them to work with their English hatchets and cross-cut saws to cut 

 down the timber on the hill as it was usual to be done at home, close to the ground, 

 with as little waste as possible ; being determined, in our philanthropy, to teach " the 

 poor ignorant settlers" how to cut down the timber without disfiguring the landscape 

 with those hideous blackened stumps. I set them to work on the top of the hill, and 





