230 . LIFE OF AUDUBON. 



CHAPTEE XL. 



Episodes in Maine: The Maine Lumbbemen. 



" The men who are employed in cutting down the 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 begin before winter has commenced, and, while 

 the ground is yet uncovered by any great depth of snow, they 

 leave their homes to proceed 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 provisions, axes, saws, and other necessary articles, to- 

 gether with the provender for their cattle, are conveyed by 03sen 

 on heavy sleds. Almost at the commencement of their march 

 tliey 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 consequence of 

 accidental burnings. These trunks, and the undergrowth which 

 lies entangled in their tops, render many places almost impass- 

 able even to men on foot. Over miry ponds they are sometimes 

 forced to form causeways, this being, under all the circum- 

 stances, 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 Ups of 

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



