182 LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



mutual aifection. No sooner in the shade of these beautiful 

 woods has the traveller finished his mid-day repast, than he 

 perceives small parties of men, lightly accoutred, and each 

 bearing an axe, approaching towards his resting-place. They 

 exchange the usual civilities, and immediately commence their 

 labours, for they too have just finished their meal. I think I 

 see them proceeding to their work. Here two have stationed 

 themselves on the opposite sides of the trunk of a noble and 

 venerable Hve oak. Their keen-edged and well-tempered axes 

 seem to make no impression on it, so small are the chips that 

 drop at each blow around the mossy and wide-spreading roots. 

 There one is ascending the stem of another, of which, in its fall, 

 the arms have stuck among the tangled tops of the neighbour- 

 ing trees. See how cautiously he proceeds, bare-footed, and 

 with a handkerchief round his head ; now he has climbed to 

 the height of about forty feet from the gi-ound ; he stops, and 

 squaring himself with the trunk on which he so boldly stands, 

 he wields with sinewy arms his trusty blade, the repeated blows 

 of which — although the tree be as tough as it is large — will 

 soon sever it in two. He has changed sides, and his back is 

 turned to you. The truuk now remains connected by only a 

 tliiu strip of wood. He places his feet on the part which is 

 lodged, and shakes it with all his might. Now swings the 

 huge log under his leaps, now it suddenly gives way, and as it 

 strikes upon the ground, its echoes are repeated through the 

 hummock, and every wild turkey within hearing utters his 

 gobble of recognition. The woodcutter, however, remains 

 ' collected and coinposed,' but the next moment he throws bis 

 axe to the ground, and assisted by the nearest grape-vine, slide» 

 down, and reaches the earth in an instant. Several men ap- 

 proach and examine the prostrate trunk. They cut at both 

 extremities, and sound the whole of the bark, to enable them 

 to judge if the tree has been attacked by white rot. If such 

 has unfortunately been the case, there, for a century or more, 

 this huge log will remain, till it gradually crumbles ; but if 

 not, and if it is free of injury or * wind-shakes,' while there is 

 no appearance of the sap having already ascended, and its pores 

 are altogether sound, they proceed to take its measurement. 

 Its shape ascertained, and the timber that is fit for use laid out 



