LUMBERERS BECOME FARMERS. 411 



as the newest settlements lately planted there. We 

 penetrated to the very farthest log-huts at the extremity 

 of the last new road driven into the forest. The settlers 

 are not altogether without society ; and when of the 

 same country and religion, as they suffer alike, so they 

 sympathise deeply with each other, and are ever ready 

 to give a hearty and willing assistance to a distressed 

 neighbour. Though not so close together as in the 

 French settlements, where the long narrow farm system 

 prevails, yet 80 or 100, or even 200 acre lots, do not 

 separate people very widely, and the habit of erecting 

 two log huts opposite each other on farms separated only 

 by the road, gives one near neighbour at least in a dis- 

 trict which is rapidly filling up. To the enjoyment of a 

 fair measure of happiness, only a few intimate friends are 

 necessary ; and we who live among a thickly crowded 

 population know little how strongly, in a wilderness 

 country, the hearts of neighbours become knit together 

 where those external influences of more civilised life 

 are excluded by which differences and discontent are 

 most frequently awakened. 



The idea I have formerly alluded to as being enter- 

 tained in New Brunswick, that lumbering — spending the 

 winter in the woods cutting down trees with the axe, 

 and the spring in guiding the logs and rafts down the 

 swollen streams — is the more dignified occupation, and 

 that the lumberer degrades himself when he becomes a 

 farmer — such an idea calls up a smile on our faces at 

 home. Such, however, was everywhere, till recently, 

 the notion entertained by the active enterprising young 

 men on the North American rivers. But bad times, and 

 perhaps other influences, are correcting these notions, 

 while, at the same time, they are improving their morals. 

 They begin now to consume tea Instead of ardent spirits. 

 They thus save money ; and seeing that the farmers — 

 though they cannot show so much ready money as they 



