254 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



and, with some exceptions, a more worthless set as 

 drivers and horse-keepers it is scarcely possible to im- 

 agine. Men of all sorts of callings, except those ac- 

 customed to the care of horses, were enlisted, so that 

 some of them did not even know how to put a set of 

 harness together. As soon as these men got clear of 

 a station on the road, and out of view of the trans- 

 port officers, they played all sorts of pranks, and in- 

 stead of going at a steady walk, chose their own pace, 

 sometimes amusing themselves by racing. It was 

 found necessary to make some examples amongst the 

 worst-behaved before anything like discipline could 

 be maintained amongst them. 



As a protection for the horses against the heavy 

 rains, ranges of rough stables were erected at several 

 places along the 48 miles of road between Prince 

 Arthur's Landing and the lake the planks for those 

 at the former place being brought from Collingwood 

 in steamers, those used elsewhere being sawn from 

 trees cut down where required. The Canadian axe- 

 man is very handy at constructing shelter for either 

 cattle or stores : the bark of trees, particularly of the 

 birch and tamarack, is largely used instead of plank- 

 ing. A roof is also quickly and efficiently made with 

 troughs hewn from logs of American poplar, placed, 

 as tiles are, in rows alternately convex and concave, 

 each trough being cut of sufficient length to reach 

 from the apex to the eave of the roof ; and one large 

 one, cut from a tree of greater diameter, being placed 



