350 BEi:-Hr>'TiNG. 



superior deer-stalker and turkey-slayer, as well as honey 

 collector ; and we never met one yet who did not excel 

 in the * gentle-craft,' — a hook and line being as in- 

 variably wound round his hat, as the bucket and axe are 

 swung at his back, or his trusty rifle across his shoulder. 



Like most men who pass much of their lives in the 

 wilderness, the bee-hunter has but little to say for him- 

 self. He is a man of action, not of words ; and, like the 

 Irishman's Owl, ' a divil to think,' if he lacks elo- 

 quence. When he does speak, however, it is to the 

 purpose, as is the custom of most great men, for 

 amongst this backwoods' fraternity men of genius in 

 their way have lived and died, their exploits un- 

 chronicled, their names unwritten in the ' book of fame.' 



The bee-hunter generally builds his wigwam upon 

 the banks of some stream which is navigable enough to 

 float his canoe, when loaded with two or three casks of 

 honey, the beeswax, and himself, either to some river 

 on which steam -boats ply, when he can trade his 

 ' plunder ' to the captain, or else to some settlement, 

 where he can barter with some store-keeper for the 

 necessaries he requires ; these being chiefly ammunition, 

 whisky, tobacco, and flour, or corn-meal. Loaded with 

 these and his empty casks, he paddles homewards fully 

 satisfied. 



His wigwam, or shanty, is generally of the roughest, 

 being needed only as a temporary shelter ; for the 

 practised bee-hunter soon discovers and robs all the 



