64 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



lion sterlincj. The mode of cutting the fir in the 

 remote woods of New Brunswick is very curious, 

 and is well described in a little work, entitled, 

 " Sketches of the Maritime Colonies of British Ame- 

 rica," by J. M'Gregor, published in 1828. 



" The timber trade, which, in a commercial as well 

 as political point of view, is of more importance in 

 employing ovir ships and seamen, than it is generally 

 considered to be, employs also a vast number of 

 people in the British colonies, whose manner of liv- 

 ing, owing to the nature of the business they follow, 

 is entirely different from that of the other inhabitants 

 of North America. 



" Several of these people form what is termed a 

 ' lumbering party,' composed of persons who are all 

 either hired by a master lumberer, who pays them 

 wages, and finds them in provisions, or of individuals 

 who enter into an understanding with each other, to 

 have a joint interest in the ])roceeds of their labour. 

 The necessary supplies of provisions, clothing, &c., 

 are generally obtained from the merchants on credit, 

 in consideration of receiving the timber which the 

 lumberers are to bring down the rivers the following 

 summer. The stock deemed requisite for a ' luni- 

 hering party^ consists of axes, a cross-cut saw, cook- 

 ing utensils, a cask of rum, tobacco and pipes, a suffi- 

 cient quantity of biscuit, pork, beef, and fish ; peas 

 and pearl barley for soup, with a cask of molasses to 

 sweeten a decoction usually made of shrubs, or of the 

 tops of the hemlock tree, and taken as tea. Two or 

 three yokes of oxen, with sufficient hay to feed them, 

 are also required to haul the timber out of the woods. 



" When thus prepared, these people proceed up 

 the rivers, with the provisions, &c., to the place fixed 

 on for their winter establishment ; which is selected 

 as near a stream of water, and in the midst of as 

 much pine timber, as possible. They commence by 



