TREATMENT OP THE OXEN. ,231 



indeed in most of the inhabitants of our Eastern States, educa- 

 tion 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 have often con- 

 sidered 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 

 drank in careful moderation. 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 have been highly gratified, and in particular at 

 one — of which I still -have a strong recollection — and which 

 took place a few miles from the fair and hospitable city of 

 Boston. There I saw fifty or more ploughs drawn by as many 

 pairs of oxen, which performed their work with so much accu- 

 racy and regularity, without the infliction of whip or rod, but 

 merely guided by the verbal mandates of the ploughmen, that 

 I was perfectly astonished. After surmounting all obstacles, 

 the lumberers, with their stock, arrive at the spot which they 

 have had in view, and immediately commence building a camp. 

 The trees around soon fall under the blows of their axes, and, 

 before many days have elapsed, a low habitation is reared and 

 fitted within for the accommodation of their cuttle, while their 

 provender is secured on a kind of loft, covered with broad 

 shingles or boards. Then their own cabin is put up ; rough 

 bedsteads, manufactured on the spot, are fixed in the corners ; 

 a chimney, composed of a frame of sticks plastered with mud, 

 leads away the smoke ; the skins of bears or deer, with some 

 blankets, form their bedding ; and around the walls are hung 

 their changes of homespun clothing, guns, and various neces- 

 saries of life. Many prefer spending the night on the sweet- 

 scented hay and corn blades of their cattle, which are laid on 

 the ground. All arranged within, the lumberers set around 

 their camp their ' dead falls,' large ' steel traps,' and ' spring 



