WOOD-CUTTING. 117 



logs and, elated with our success as wreckers on a small scale, we 

 start off for home. In a day or two the deals were found floating 

 about by hundreds, and the work of collecting them as also of 

 marking and tying the logs to identify them, continued all the fall 

 and even into the winter. This is the first wreck that has occurred 

 on the coast, near here at least, for over thirty years, I think, if 

 my information is correct ; and though we certainly wish no harm 

 to anybody, we can but rejoice that the misfortune of the ship will 

 be so fortunate for the people of the coast. 



Wednesday, Nov. loth. The men have spent a greater part of 

 the day cutting wood. Those who can obtain wood near by with- 

 out the necessity of going into the interior up the river, and rafting 

 it down, as many of them do, content themselves with a smaller ar- 

 ticle, and continue to make clearings in the low spruce and fir 

 about their own place. The majority of this wood varies from 

 four to six and even seven inches in diameter, while the trees are 

 rarely over fifteen feet in height. The tree is cut, the branches 

 trimmed, and the limbs thrown in a pile upon the ground ; the 

 trunks are then piled on the sledge and drawn by the dogs to 

 the house. In winter the men are often obliged to go chopping 

 wood after a heavy fall of snow. It is then a matter of no pleasure 

 to walk half a mile or a mile through the deep snow to some cho- 

 sen locality, and there remain cutting for many hours, while the 

 snow from the branches falls down your neck, as you stoop over 

 to chop, and the wet often finds a hole, be it ever so small, 

 in your boots ; while, to endure the cold, the thick clothing 

 one is obliged to wear renders such violent exercise anything 

 but comfortable. When the wood choppers return at night there 

 is always a hot supper waiting for them, and the roaring and 

 crackling fire sends out a genial heat that dries the wet garments 

 while it comforts the spirits of the men. 



Friday, the 12th. The first snowstorm of winter came upon 

 us to-day. It began in the morning and snowed most furiously all 

 day ; by evening the ground was covered to the depth of nearly if 



