194 Life of Audubon. 



busy. The mills al! are going, and the logs, which a few 

 months before were the supporters of broad and leafy 

 tops, are now in the act of being split asunder. The 

 boards are then launched into the stream, and rafts are 

 formed of them for market. 



" During the summer and autumnal months, the Le- 

 high, a small river of itself, soon becomes extremely 

 shallow, and to float the rafts would prove impossible, 

 had not art managed to provide a supply of water for 

 this express purpose. At the breast of the lower dam is 

 a curiously-constructed lock, which is opened at the ap- 

 proach of the rafts. They pass through this lock with 

 the rapidity of lightning, propelled by the water that had 

 been accumulated in the dam, and which is of itself gene- 

 rally sufficient to float them to Mauch Chunk ; after 

 which, entering regular canals, they find no other impedi- 

 ments, but are conveyed to their ultimate destination. 

 Before population had greatly advanced in this part of 

 Pennsylvania, game of all descriptions found in that 

 range was extremely abundant. The elk did not disdain 

 to browse on the shoulders of the mountains near the Le- 

 high. Bears and the common deer must have been 

 plentiful, as at the moment when I write, many of both 

 kinds are seen and killed by the resident hunters. The 

 wild turkey, the pheasant, and the grouse, are tolerably 

 abundant ; and as to trout in the streams ah ! reader, ii 

 you are an angler, do go there and try for yourself. For 

 my part, I can only say that I have been made weary 

 with pulling up from the rivulets the sparkling fish, al- 

 lured by the struggles of the common grasshopper. 



" A comical affair happened with some bears, which 1 

 shall relate to you, good reader. A party of my friend 

 Irish's raftsmen, returning from Mauch Chunk one after- 

 noon, through sundry short cuts over the mountains, at 

 the season when huckleberries are ripe and plentiful, 



