/8 SPOET IN NORTH AMERICA. 



were mounted on a couple of good nags, and on our 

 way to Wyaconda Bottom. 



The road lay through vast forests of maple trees 

 and oaks ; but as we advanced, the oaks became 

 sparser, and at last nothing but maples could be 

 seen, as erect as the letter I, slim as poplars, and of 

 different sizes, from the circumference of a mast to 

 that of a cask. The larger ones, however, were 

 greatly in the minority. My companion informed 

 me, as we rode on, that Wyaconda Bottom, like the 

 greater part of the maple forests of the neighbour- 

 hood, was held upon a lease transmitting it from 

 father to son, and that it was he who had it worked 

 for his own benefit. 



In a short time, we arrived at the Sugar Camp, 

 the huts of which were built round a bubbling 

 spring, and along the banks of a stream, sheltered 

 by superb magnolias, which were already opening 

 their Avhite flowers without waiting for their emerald 

 leaves. In the centre of this extemporised hamlet, 

 a large fire-place had been built with three enormous 

 stones, and this served to keep off the wild beasts 

 during the night. Two men mounted guard day 

 and night over the casks containing the sugar juice, 

 for the maple sap is so attractive to the beasts of 

 prey, that they will attack it at almost any risk. 

 Two shots fired from a gun gave the signal of our 

 arrival in camp, and two victims fell upon the 

 ground. They were enormous opossums, that had 



