NOTES ON THE EXTRACTION OF TIMBER 123 
streams, sub-tributary and waterways of all kinds are 
brought into use, water having to be impounded in many 
of the latter to provide sufficient current when needful 
at certain seasons. 
In the vast Dominions of Canada, which have yet 
to be covered with a network of railways, this natural 
and economical method of bringing the timber nearer 
to the coast is universal, and the subject of the arduous 
tasks of the lumbermen in felling the timber in the 
woods in the depths of winter, the manipulation of 
the drives in the snow-flooded streams in the Spring, 
and the life led by these lumbermen, have formed 
material for much picturesque writing by various 
authors. 
The camps are formed in the late autumn months, 
some fifty or sixty men, mostly French Canadians, 
being included according to the area of the “stand” 
which is to be operated upon. Shacks are erected, 
and stores of all kinds needful for the men’s subsistence 
during the ensuing months are provided. Through 
the depths of the winter, far away at most times 
from civilisation, with snow lying around to the 
depth of six or more feet, and with the thermometer 
registering ten, twenty, or even thirty degrees below 
zero, the work of felling the trees in the silent woods 
is carried on. The trunks, after being felled and 
branded with a hammer-mark to identify their ownership 
when they arrive later at the mills, are then skidded 
down the hill-sides or drawn by horses over the frozen 
snow to the banks of the waterways, where they are 
piled in dumps in readiness for the awakening of Spring. 
After completing their arduous spell of winter’s work 
the nen, who are not notorious for their peaceable habits 
or the steadiness of their lives, are paid off and return 
to civilization in the populated centres of Ottawa, 
