( 97 ) 



THE FORCE OF THE WATERS. 



The men who are employed in cutting down th* trees, and conveying 

 the logs to the saw-mills or the places for shipping, are, in the State of 

 Maine, called " Lumberers.'" Their labours may be said to be continual. 

 Before winter has commenced, and while the ground is yet uncovered 

 with a great depth of snoAV, they leave their homes to proceed to the in- 

 terior of the pine forests, which in that part of the country are truly mag- 

 nificent, and betake themselves to certain places already well known to 

 them. Their provisions, axes, saws, and other necessary articles, to- 

 gether 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 either from age, or in conse- 

 quence 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 cause- 

 ways, 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 in- 

 dustrious and temperate men, for in them, as indeed in most of the inha- 

 bitants of our Eastern States, education and habit have tempered the pas- 

 sions 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 whisky, not a drop could I obtain, and it is probable there was 

 an equal lack of spiritous liquors of every other kind. Now and then I 

 saw some good old wines, but they were always drunk in careful mode- 

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

 the lumberers speak to them as if they were rational beings. Few words 

 seem to suffice, and their whole strength is applied to the labour, as if in 

 gratitude to those who treat them with so much gentleness and humanity. 



While present on more than one occasion at what Americans call 

 " ploughing matches," which they have annually in many of the States, I 



VOL, II. G 



