202 THE LUMBER TRADE. 



guess I med tracks out o' them diggins as soon as I cud 

 rise on my scrapers I did so." 



" Life in a crowd is not pleasant," observed Gaultier. 

 "I once had to live in a thickly -settled district for 

 nearly two years, an' I thought the very air would 

 have choked me. Then there were annoyances of dif- 

 ferent kinds. Money was hard to come by, and meat 

 was scarce. I never lived as well as we do out here, 

 where we have the best of game for the shooting. Pigs 

 and corn and Congress seemed to be the only things 

 anybody cared for ; and I was daily disgusted at seeing 

 the few remaining patches of woodland in the neigh- 

 bourhood hacked down. I was right glad when at last 

 I was able to get back into the wilderness." 



" Thur's one class o' people," said Jake, " that orter 

 git clurred out o' the country right straight away, and 

 them's the coons that boss the lumber trade. They 

 won't leave cover for a chitmunk in a few years' time. 

 Why, when I wur a-growin' up younker, I rec'lects 

 rivers, an' big ones at that, whur yer wouldn't see 

 water enuff now to float a chip, an' all o' hevin' the 

 woods cut down. I reckin clurrin off the timber dried 

 the springs. The grand old woods I used to walk in 

 when fust I carried a rifle ur turned into floors an' 

 doors long enuff ago now, I guess. Ef thur's anything 

 this old niggur hates wuss'n civilyzation, it's them 

 lumber thieves that robs the wilderness o' its beauty." 



" I heard," said Pierre, " when I was last in Toronto, 

 " that it was intended to bring in a law to check the 



