FOREST LIFE. 55 



meadow grass. By this remarkable arrangement, Nature has 

 anticipated, as it would appear, the wants of lumbermen in lo- 

 cating, and in preserving from the encroachments of the forest, a 

 plentiful supply of subsistence for the teams employed in pro- 

 curing lumber in its immediate vicinity, and far from the haunts 

 of civilized man. 



To these wild and solemn retreats, where the dismal hooting 

 of the night-owl breaks upon the ear, and the sighing winds, as 

 they pass through the tall, waving grass, waft the distant howl 

 of the wolf, large crews of men resort, with the usual haying im- 

 plements, provisions, &c., for making and stacking the hay to be 

 used during the ensuing winter. 



In the latter part of autumn these meadows are covered with 

 water, which finally freezes. It is therefore necessary to erect 

 teniporary scafiblds, called more generally " staddles," vipon 

 which the hay is to be piled in large stacks. These staddles 

 are made of poles laid upon cross-stakes or crutches, sufficiently 

 high to protect the hay from the water beneath. From these 

 the hay is removed, sometimes in boats before the waters freeze, 

 and afterward upon sleds on thei ice. When the former method 

 of transportation is adopted, two bateaus or skiffs are placed side 

 by side, small poles being thrown across them ; the hay is then 

 loaded on this platform, and carried to the niost convenient land- 

 ing, where it is reloaded and hauled on ox-sleds to the camp. If 

 the hay is removed upon the ice, the stacks are hauled away 

 whole. The mode of loading is simple ; the central part of the 

 scaffolding is cut away, the sled shoved underneath, when the re- 

 maining props are cut away, and the whole stack settles on to 

 the sled, and is thus moved off to the place of destination. This 

 expeditious method of loading is particularly convenient and de- 

 sirable, as may be imagined when one takes into consideration the 

 biting winter winds which sweep across these wide meadow fields. 

 Since a<?ricultural interests have invited men far into the in- 



