EPISODES 



381 



with a great depth of snow, they leave their homes to pro- 

 ceed to the interior of the pine forests, which in that part 

 of the country are truly magnificent, and betake themselves 

 to certain places already well known to them. Their pro- 

 visions, axes, saws, and other necessary articles, together 

 with provender for their cattle, are conveyed by oxen in 

 heavy sledges. Almost at the commencement of their 

 march, they are obliged to enter the woods, and they have 

 frequently to cut a way for themselves for considerable 

 spaces, as the ground is often covered with the decaying 

 trunks of immense trees, which have fallen cither from age, 

 or in consequence of accidental burnings. These trunks, and 

 the undergrowth which lies entangled in their tops render 

 many places almost impassable even to men on foot. Over 

 miry ponds they are sometimes forced to form causeways, 

 this being, under all circumstances, the easiest mode of 

 reaching the opposite side. Then, reader, is the time for 

 witnessing the exertions of their fine large cattle. No 

 rods do their drivers use to pain their flanks ; no oaths or 

 imprecations are ever heard to fall from the lips of these 

 most industrious and temperate men, for in them, as in 

 most of the inhabitants of our Eastern .States, education 

 and habit have tempered the passions, and reduced the 

 moral constitution to a state of harmony. Nay, the sobriety 

 that exists in many of the villages of Maine, I acknowledge, 

 I have often considered as carried to excess, for on asking 

 for brandy, rum, or whiskey, not a drop could I obtain, and 

 it is probable there was an equal lack of spirituous liquors 

 of every other kind. Now and then I saw some good old 

 wines, but they were always drunk in careful moderation. 

 But to return to the management of the oxen. Why, 

 reader, the lumbermen speak to them as if they were 

 rational beings. Few words seem to suffice, and their 

 whole strength is applied to the labor, as if in gratitude 

 to those who treat them with so much gentleness and 

 humanity. 



