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384 



AUDUBON 



The great heats of the dog-days have parched the ground ; 

 every creek has become a shallow, except here and there 

 where in a deep hole the salmon and the trout have found 

 a retreat ; the sharp, slimy angles of multitudes of rocks 

 project, as if to afford resting-places to the Wood-ducks 

 and Herons that breed on the borders of these streams. 

 Thousands of " saw-logs " remain in every pool, beneath 

 and above each rapid or fall. The miller's dam has been 

 emptied of its timber, and he must now resort to some 

 expedient to procure a fresh supply. 



It was my good fortune to witness the method employed 

 for the purpose of collecting the logs that had not reached 

 their destination, and I had the more pleasure that it was 

 seen in company with my little family. I wish, for your 

 sake, reader, that I could describe in an adequate manner 

 the scene which I viewed ; but, although not so well quali- 

 fied as I could wish, rely upon it that the desire which I 

 feel to gratify you will induce me to use all my endeavors 

 to give you an idea of it. 



It was the month of September. At the upper extremity 

 of Dennysville, which is itself a pretty village, are the saw- 

 mills and ponds of the hospitable Judge Lincoln and other 

 persons. The creek that conveys the logs to these ponds, 

 and Vv^hich bears the name of the village, is interrupted in 

 its course by many rapids and narrow embanked gorges. 

 One of the latter is situated about half a mile above the 

 mill-dams, and is so rocky and rugged in its bottom and 

 sides as to preclude the possibility of the trees passing 

 along it at low water, while, as I conceived, it would have 

 given no slight labor to an army of woodsmen or millers to 

 move the thousands of large logs that had accumulated 

 in it. They lay piled in confused heaps to a great height 

 along an extent of several hundred yards, and were in some 

 places so close as to have formed a kind of dam. Above 

 the gorge there is a large natural reservoir, in which the 

 head- waters of the creek settle, while only a small portion 



