Wood Cutting in Winter, 283 



on the spot, are fixed in the corners ; a chimney, com- 

 posed of a frame of sticks plastered with mud, leads away 

 the smoke ; the skins of bears or deer, with some blankets, 

 form their bedding ; and around the walls are hung their 

 changes of homespun clothing, guns, and various neces- 

 saries of life. Many prefer spending the night en the 

 sweet-scented hay and corn blades of their cattle, w-hich 

 are laid on the ground. All arranged within, the lumber- 

 ers set around their camp their ' dead falls,' large * steel 

 traps,' and * spring guns,' in suitable places to procure 

 some of the bears that ever prowl around such establish- 

 ments. Now the heavy clouds of November, driven by 

 the northern blast, pour down the snow in feathery flakes. 

 The winter has fairly set in, and seldom do the sun's glad- 

 dening rays fall on the woodcutter's hut. In warm flan- 

 nels his body is enveloped, the skin of a racoon covers 

 his head and brow, his moose-skin leggings reach the 

 girdle that secures them round his waist, while on broad 

 moccasins, or snow-shoes, he stands from the earliest dawn 

 till night hacking away at the majestic pines that for a 

 century past have embellished the forest. The fall of 

 these valuable trees no longer resounds on the ground ; 

 and as they tumble here and there, nothing is heard but 

 the rustling and crackling of their branches, their heavy 

 ti'unks sinking into the deep snow. Thousands of large 

 pines thus cut down every winter afford room for the 

 younger trees, which spring up profusely to supply the 

 wants of man. Weeks and weeks have elapsed, the earth's 

 pure white covering has become thickly and firmly crusted 

 by the increasing intensity of the cold, the fallen trees 

 have all been sawn into measured logs, and the long re- 

 pose of the oxen has fitted them for hauling them to the 

 nearest frozen stream. The ice gradually becomes cov- 

 ered with the accumulating mass of timber, and their task 

 completed, the lumberers wait impatiently for the break- 



