LUMBERING. 263 



woods when first the snow falls, and remains there till 

 the spring ; then he goes down the rivers with the logs, 

 and for a brief period the towns are inundated with these 

 sailors of the forest. They work in gangs of from six or 

 eight men up to twenty. They build log camps for them- 

 selves and for their horses, and make their own roads 

 Each camp has a main or " portage " road, leading to the 

 nearest settlement or turnpike road, which is sometimes 

 as much as 50, 60, or 100 miles distant. Along this road 

 their provisions are " portaged." This alone gives work 

 to one team when the gang is large and the distance 

 great. Flour, pork, tea, and molasses form the staples of 

 their diet. They breakfast before daybreak, dine about 

 ten or eleven, have a " bite " at two or three, supper at 

 six, and a "lunch" before they go to sleep not bad 

 living ; and at any hour of the day or night that a 

 stranger happens to visit them, on goes the kettle and 

 frying-pan, and he is treated to the best they have got. 

 Their hospitality is unbounded, sometimes embarrassing. 

 Once or twice, when I have been travelling in the lumber 

 woods, I have had occasion to call in at eight or ten camps 

 in the course of the day, and at every one of them I have 

 been compelled to stop for a dinner, a lunch, or bite. In 

 a camp of twenty men the division of labour is as follows : 

 the " boss " (Anglice, " skipper ") ; the cook, who has no 

 sinecure ; the teamster and the teamster's assistant, com- 

 monly called the " teamster's divil " they look after the 

 horses, and haul the logs from the stump to the river 

 bank with their teams; five broad-axemen, who square 

 the logs ; the " head swamper," i. e. engineer and road- 

 maker, and six assistants ; and four " fallers " (of trees). 



