IV PREFACE. 



afford sufficient material for a book of some interest, and 

 chiefly because the matter it might embrace had never 

 been presented in a connected detail. 



Suggesting the substance of what has already been said 

 to several intelligent lumbermen, an interest was at orice 

 awakened in their feelings upon the subject, accompanied 

 with an urgent request that the plan should be prosecuted, 

 and that a work should be prepared which might make 

 their pursuits, adventures, and hardships more generally 

 known. To many of these friends the author is also in- 

 debted for some assistance in furnishing statistical matter. 



In incorporating the somewhat lengthy notice of Forest 

 Trees, forming the first part of this volume, the author has 

 ventured to make his own taste and feelings the criterion 

 by which he has been guided in his selections and obser- 

 vations for the reader, and although they may not hold a 

 strict relation to the narrative, he hopes that they may not 

 be deemed inappropriate or uninteresting. 



This volume makes no pretensions to literary merit ; 

 sooner would it, indeed, claim kindred with the wild and 

 uncultivated scenes of which it is but a simple relation. 



In justice to the gentlemen whom he has quoted in ar- 

 ranging the statistical portion of this volume, as well as to 

 himself, the author would state that the material was pro- 

 cured some four years ago. The statement of this fact 

 may account for any discrepancy which may appear from 

 more recent accounts of the lumbering interests, should 

 they be found to vary from the representations here made. 



The Author. 



