A Day's Work in Riding Mountain. 203 



tents pitched at Lake Audy. Well, early in the morning you 

 will be suddenly disturbed in your slumber by a cheerful : ' ' Get 

 up here, six o'clock, weather is fine, not a cloud. Get a move 

 on!" That is George, our cook, whose head never fails to appear 

 in the tent door at this time, Sundays excepted. After a few 

 minutes there is another call: "Ain't you up yet? Pancakes is 

 getting cold." Everyone has a soft spot for George's pancakes. 

 I believe he had to start to make them at five o'clock; so up you 

 get, a dip in the lake, on with some clothes, and you are ready for 

 the breakfast. At seven o'clock there is nothing left on the table 

 except the hardware, and out we go to work; one party of four 

 on a valuation survey, and another party to take stem analyses. 

 Let us follow the former party. There are two men on the chain, 

 the head man carrying a compass to maintain a straight 

 course, the rear end man keeping the tally. The other two 

 fellows go one on each side of the chain, calipering the trees to a 

 distance of 16^ feet from same, calling out their variety, diameter 

 4^ feet from the ground, and how many logs they can get from 

 each tree, to the tallyman, who puts it down on a printed form. 

 On the back of this he makes note of everything that is particular 

 to the stand he is going through, location, situation, soil, ground 

 cover, undergrowth, variety of trees, density, silvicultural con- 

 ditions of the stand, reproduction, etc. Insects and fungi are 

 collected and damage they do is studied. These lines all run 

 parallel at different distances depending on the type of the forest 

 and how careful an estimation you wish to obtain. 



But what is all this racket about? Oh, Dan, the teamster's 

 dog, which is following the party, has got hold of a wolf. He 

 bites and shakes it, but poor Dan's teeth are not very sharp and 

 not much harm is done. Disgusted, he lets go his hold and quick 

 as lightning the wolf has got him by the nose. There is a yelp 

 and the wolf is caught in Dan's grip again. But the result is no 

 better. This time, however, he is careful not to open his jaws 

 and with the help of Gus, who is "found carrying concealed 

 weapons," the poor wolf is passed into eternity. 



And the surveying party continues its march, through good 

 timber, over big bruits and muskegs, crossing rivers, wading 

 through sloughs, tumbling down a deep ravine only to have to 

 climb up again on the other side the next minute. But everyone 

 is cheerful and if the sloughs become too deep there is always 

 Parker's "It's a gay life, boys!" which means that you are not 

 going to be a quitter. 



Seven o'clock finds us all at supper table. The stem analysis 

 party tell their experience, how they have been occupied finding 

 out age and annual growth, height, merchantable length, etc.. 

 of different trees, and how they saw a big bull moose on a cutting 

 biting off the tops of voung trees, showing a most alarming dis- 



