, TROUT FISHING — MITCHELL. 47 



a Ijot day as we emerged from the woods on to the 

 shore of Long Lake, and the sun came down with 

 such scorching power that I marked Friday, July 

 10th, in my calendar, to see if the temperature was 

 correspondingly high in New York and the settle- 

 ments. Well, this burning day I rode in a lumber 

 wagon through the woods over roots and rocks seven 

 miles, walked seven miles, and rowed a boat eleven 

 miles — a good day's work for an invalid fresh from 

 the doctor's hands. Along the road you would see 

 trees at certain intervals, marked H, which, after 

 vainly attempting to account for, I finally inquired 

 the reason of. *' Oh, it means Highway^'" was the 

 reply. This rather comical way, however, of inform- 

 ing one he was on the highway, is not, after all, or 

 rather was not, without its use. When the first rude 

 path was cut, a man would not have deemed himself 

 on a public road if he had not been told of it in some 

 wa3^ As we passed along, we would come upon fires 

 built over a huge rock in the middle of the track, 

 compelling us to take a semicircle in the woods. 

 On inquiring the cause of this to me singular pro- 

 cedure, I was told that m.en were working on the 

 road, and in the absence of drills, took this method 

 of breaking the rocks to pieces. Being sandstone, 

 the fire slowly crunrbled them apart, so that the crow- 

 bar or handspike could remove them. I thought of 

 Hannibal, and his fire and vinegar on the rocks of 

 the San Bernard pass, and men seemed going back 

 to their primitive state. Instead of cutting down 

 the trees that stood in the way, they hewed off the 



