PREFACE. 



The writer of the following pages was reared among the 

 Pine forests of Maine, and has spent several of the most 

 pleasant years of his life in active participation in many of 

 the scenes here delineated. 



The incidents he has related are real, and in no case is 

 the truth sacrificed to fancy or embellishment. 



When the author commenced writing, his motive was 

 to indulge somewhat in pleasant reminiscences of the past, 

 and to live over again that portion of his life which, in gen- 

 eral, was so pleasantly spent among the wild mountains, 

 forests, lakes, and rivers of Maine. It was during this ret- 

 rospective exercise with his pen that the idea of writing a 

 book, embracing his own experience and observations dur- 

 ing the time in which he participated in the lumberman's 

 life, suggested itself. 



Recollecting that, while the life, habits, and adventures 

 of many classes of men had engaged the attention of the 

 reading community, and that, among the multitude of nar- 

 ratives issued from the press, nothing of interest or import- 

 ance had been put forth exemplifying the life and adven- 

 tures of a very large class of persons known as lumber- 

 men, he naturally became, possessed with a desire to enter- 

 tain others With some relation of what appeared to Jiim to 



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