The Ploughboy 



their way to California before touching bottom. 

 On the contrary, all these lake-basins are shal- 

 low as compared with their width. When we 

 went into the Wisconsin woods there was not 

 a single wheel-track or cattle-track. The only 

 man-made road was an Indian trail along the 

 Fox River between Portage and Packwauckee 

 Lake. Of course the deer, foxes, badgers, coons, 

 skunks, and even the squirrels had well-beaten 

 tracks from their dens and hiding-places in 

 thickets, hollow trees, and the ground, but they 

 did not reach far, and but little noise was made 

 by the soft-footed travelers in passing over 

 them, only a slight rustling and swishing among 

 fallen leaves and grass. 



Corduroying the swamps formed the prin- 

 cipal part of road -making among the early 

 settlers for many a day. At these annual road- 

 making gatherings opportunity was offered for 

 discussion of the news, politics, religion, war, 

 the state of the crops, comparative advantages 

 of the new country over the old, and so forth, 

 but the principal opportunities, recurring every 

 [ 209 ] 



