402 Forestry Quarterly. 



men on this last area the contract was easily completed just before 

 soft snow made traveling almost impossible. 



As may be inferred the men in charge of the different parties 

 were depended on to push ahead their respective works, without 

 any immediate supervision of detail. The firm was enabled to do 

 this by reason of having experienced men who were familiar with 

 woods conditions in the State of Maine — conditions which 

 resemble those of Quebec to a great extent. Without these 

 efficient men in charge the speedy carrying out of the contract 

 with any degree of exactitude would have been impossible. 

 They enabled the writer, in general charge, to devote himself to 

 travel among the parties, and to office work. 



As before stated, hauling, that is the question of supplies, was 

 the most difficult problem, increasing as each party got farther 

 from its base. Five sled-men to each party were kept busy, and 

 at times this number had to be considerably increased. The sleds 

 used were made with spruce board sides, runners of iron, and 

 hardwood rounds, securely bolted from side to side and from 

 runner to top, this being the construction of the ordinary Maine 

 moose-sled. It behooves the purchaser to look over his sleds 

 carefully ; they are subjected to hard usage, and unless well and 

 properly built will be a source of continual vexation and delay. 

 The dimensions of the best sleds we had were : length six feet, 

 width sixteen inches, height six inches, width of iron runner three 

 inches, thickness of board sides one and one-eighth inches, and 

 rounds six inches apart. The sides must be solid, not built with 

 standards, as bushes will catch in the open spaces, if such are left, 

 and retard progress. A sledman, in ordinary going on a snow- 

 shoe trail well beaten down, can haul from 150 to 200 pounds a 

 fair day's travel. The snow-shoe trails should be well marked by 

 bushes stuck in the snow, wherever open places subject to winds 

 are encountered. 



We adopted the short round highland snow-shoe, using lamp 

 wick fod thongs. We found the local shoes of this type satis- 

 factory in model but not strongly enough made for survey work. 

 The dimensions of the average shoes are : length two feet and 

 seven inches, and width one foot and eight inches, with close 

 mesh. If one would have some reliable maker follow this model 

 he would obtain an almost ideal shoe for surveying work, 

 especially in hilly country. The trouble with the Canadian shoes 

 was in the inferior quality of the bows. 



