CHAPTER XXIV. 



Episodes in Maine : The Maine Lumbermen. 



HE men who are employed in cutting down the 

 trees, and conveying the logs to the saw-mills or 

 the places for shipping, are, in the State of 

 Maine, called Mumberers.' Their labors may be said to 

 begin before winter has commenced, and, while the 

 ground is yet uncovered by any great depth of snow, they 

 leave their homes to proceed to the interior of the pine 

 forests, which in that part of the country are truly mag- 

 nificent, and betake themselves to certain places already 

 well known to them. Their provisions, axes, saws, and 

 other necessary articles, together with the provender for 

 their cattle, are conveyed by oxen on heavy sleds. Al- 

 most at the commencement of their march they are 

 obliged to enter the woods ; and they have frequently to 

 cut a way for themselves for considerable spaces, as the 

 ground is often covered with the decaying trunks of im- 

 mense trees, which have fallen either from age or in con- 

 sequence of accidental burnings. These trunks, and the 

 undergrowth which lies entangled in their tops, render 

 many places almost impassable even to men on foot. 

 Over miry ponds they are sometimes forced to form 

 causeways, this being, under all the circumstances, the 

 easiest mode of reaching the opposite side. Then, read- 

 er, is the time for witnessing the exertions of their fine, 

 large cattle. No rods do their drivers use to pain their 

 flanks ; no oaths or imprecations are ever heard to fall 

 from the lips of these most industrious and temperate 



