40 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



stems with their light canopy of sunlit leaves, through 

 the breaks in which the blue sky shows quite dark as a 

 background, the innumerable lights falling on the light 

 green undergrowth of plants and shrubs beneath, and the 

 general absence of appreciable lines of shadow every- 

 where, stamp these hard- wood hills with an almost fairy- 

 land appearance. 



If at all near the borders of civilisation, we soon strike 

 a " hauling road," leading from such localities into the 

 settlements — a track broad enough for a sled and pair of 

 oxen to pass over when the farmer comes in winter to 

 transport his firewood over the snow. And a goodly 

 stock indeed he requires to battle with the cold of a 

 North American winter in the backwoods ; logs, such as 

 it would take two men to lift, of birch, beech or maple, 

 are piled on his ample hearth ; the abundance of fuel 

 and the readiness with which he can bring it from the 

 neighbouring bush, is one of his greatest blessings. He 

 deserves a few comforts, for perhaps his lifetime, and that 

 of his father, has been spent in redeeming the few acres 

 round the dwelling from the fangs of gigantic stumps 

 and boulders of rock. A patch of potatoes, an acre or 

 so of buckwheat, and another of oats, and a few rough- 

 looking cattle, are his sources of wealth, or perhaps a 

 rough saw mill, constructed far up in the forest brook, 

 and the whirr of whose circular saw disturbs only the 

 wild animals of the surrounding woods. 



How vividly is recalled to my memory the delight 

 experienced on many occasions by our tired, belated 

 party, returning from a hunting camp through unknown 

 woods, on finding one of these logging roads, anticipating 

 in advance the kindly welcome of the invariably hospit- 



