192 Life of Auduhon, 



falls, as well as, below the falls, deep pools, which ren- 

 der this stream a most valuable one for mills of any kind. 

 Not many years before this date my host was chosen by 

 the agent of the Lehigh Coal Company as their mill- 

 wright, and manager for cutting down the fine trees which 

 covered the mountains around. He was young, robust, 

 active, industrious, and persevering. He marched to the 

 spot where his abode now is, with some workmen, and 

 by dint of hard labor first cleared the road mentioned 

 above, and reached the river at the centre of a bend, 

 where he fixed on erecting various mills. The pass here 

 is so narrow that it looks as if formed by the bursting 

 asunder of the mountain, both sides ascending abruptly, 

 so that the place where the settlement was made is in 

 many parts difiicult of access, and the road then newly 

 cut was only sufficient to permit men and horses to come 

 to the spot where Jedediah and his men were at work. So 

 great in fact where the difficulties of access, that, as he 

 told me, pointing to a spot about 150 feet above us, they 

 for many months slipped from it their barrelled provis- 

 ions, assisted by ropes, to their camp below. But no 

 sooner was the first saw-mill erected, than the axemen be- 

 gan their devastation. Trees one after another were, and 

 are yet constantly heard falling during the days, and in 

 calm nights the greedy mills told the sad tale that in a 

 century the noble forests around would exist no more. 

 Many mills were erected, many dams raised, in defiance 

 of the impetuous Lehigh. One full third of the trees have 

 already been culled, turned into boards, and floated as 

 far as Philadelphia. In such an undertaking the cutting 

 of the trees is not all. They have afterwards to be hauled 

 to the edge of the mountains bordering the river, launched 

 into the stream, and led to the mills, over many shallows 

 and difficult places. Whilst I was in the Great Pine 

 Swamp, I frequently visited one of the principal places for 



