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forests beyond. They were housed in two tents and an open-air 

 kitchen supplied them with food. It was a real pleasure to watch 

 these hungry men eat their several meals, they ate so heartily 

 and enjoyed their food so thoroughly pork, beans, potatoes, 

 pumpkin, cheese, bread, syrup, and tea disappeared with 

 marvellous facility and celerity, three, and sometimes four 

 times a day. We had many a meal together, and among the 

 various excellent dishes which the cook, who was an artist, 

 prepared, I can highly recommend the white beans in the 

 morning after they had simmered all night long in the company 

 of pork fat in an iron pot buried among the hot ashes. A hardy, 

 fine set of men these lumberers are, who lead a very arduous life, 

 especially during the extreme cold of a Canadian winter. After 

 the trees have been chopped down and hauled over the snow to 

 the river or lake, the men, when the ice has broken, have to pull 

 the heavy logs into the icy water and to push them into the 

 stream, often working up to their hips in the half-frozen 

 river. Winter supplies for the future shanty were brought daily 

 from a neighbouring farm on a famous craft called the Beaver 

 but more commonly the Crocodile, names earned by her ability 

 to travel on land as well as on water. When desirous of leaving 

 her natural element, to have a run on shore or perhaps climb 

 over a hill a mile long, a steel cable is fastened to the trunk of a 

 tree on the road to be travelled over ; the wire rope is now 

 wound up by the machine on board and the Crocodile slides 

 on her runners as far as the hawser will allow ; this is now 

 hitched on to another tree further afield and the boat continues 

 her travels. She is naturally a very slow craft both on land and 

 water the latter fact a sore point with her captain and hotly 

 disputed yet her amphibious nature does away with a great 

 deal of loading and unloading. We passed our long evenings 

 assembled in the largest tent, tales were told, a great deal of 

 tobacco consumed, and the favourite game of " Pedro " played 

 with immense enthusiasm. 



A great variety of timber grew near our camp or lay as fallen 

 trees or logs upon the ground, and one evening we found that 

 the camp-fire was made up of no less than eight different woods 

 ash, hard and soft maple, yellow and white birch, pine, cedar, 

 and poplar ; easily we might have added spruces, balsams, 

 tamarac, oak, and others to the blazing pile. A tent, although 



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