THE PINE. 



467 



tine for commerce: nor would the labour of 

 extracting it be easy, since it occupies exclusively 

 tracts of only a few hundred acres, and is usually 

 mixed in different proportions with thje leafy 

 trees. 



The vast consumption of this tree for domestic 

 use, says Michaux, who wrote about twenty 

 years ago, and for exportation to the West Indies 

 and to Europe, renders it necessary every year 

 to penetrate farther into the country, and inroads 

 are already made in quest of this species only 

 upon forests which probably will not be cleared 

 for cultivation in twenty-five or thirty years. 

 The persons engaged in this branch of industry 

 are in general emigrants from New Hampshire, 

 led by a roving disposition, and a desire for 

 amassing wealth. In summer, they unite in 

 small companies, and traverse these vast solitudes 

 in every direction to ascertain the places in which 

 the pines abound. After cutting the grass and 

 converting it into hay, for the nourishment of 

 the cattle to be employed in their labour, they 

 return home. In the beginning of winter they 

 enter this forest again, establish themselves in 

 huts covei'ed with the bark of the canoe birch, 

 or the arbor vitae; and though the cold is so 

 intense, that the mercury sometimes remains for 

 several weeks from 40° to 45° below the point 

 of congelation, they persevere with unabated 

 courage in their work. When the trees are 

 felled they cut them into logs from fourteen to 

 eighteen feet long, and by means of their cattle, 

 which they employ with great dexterity, drag 

 them to the river; and after stamping on them 

 a mark of property, roll them upon its frozen 

 bosom. At the breaking up of the ice in the 

 spring, they float down with the current. 



About 120 miles from the sea the timber is 

 collected, and each party forms his own into 

 rafts, and either disposes of them to the proprie- 

 tors of the various saw-mills on the banks of 

 the river, or gets them formed into deals on his 

 own account. 



The upper part of Pennsylvania, near the 

 source of the Delaware and Susquehannah, 

 which is mountainous and cold, possesses large 

 forests of this pine; and in the spring the timber 

 is floated down those streams for the internal 

 consumption of the state. It enters into the 

 construction of houses, both in the country and 

 in the towns, and is cut into planks for exporta- 

 tion to the West Indies. 



Boston is the principal emporium for this wood 

 in the northern States. 



Besides deals for constructing the doors and 

 other parts of the interior of their houses in 

 America, the white pine is formed into what are 

 called clap hoards and shingles. These form the 

 exterior coverings of the houses. These wooden 

 houses last about twelve or fifteen years. 



A great quantity of fir timber is annually 



imported into Great Britain from our Canadian 

 possessions, and New Brunswick. Mr M'Gregor 

 gives the following account of the mode of pro- 

 curing this timber in the latter place : — 



" The timber trade, which, in a commercial as 

 well as political point of view, is of more impor- 

 tance in employing our ships and seamen, than 

 it is generally considered to be, employs also a 

 vast number of people in the British colonies, 

 whose manner of living, owing to the nature of 

 the business they foUow, is entirely different 

 from that of the other inliabitants of North 

 America. 



" Several of these people form what is termed a 

 'lumbering party,' composed of persons who 

 are all either hired by a master lumberer, who 

 pays them wages, and finds them in provisions, 

 or of individuals who enter into an understanding 

 with each other, to have a joint interest in the 

 proceeds of their labour. The necessary supplies 

 of provisions, clothing, &c., are generally obtained 

 from the merchants on credit, in consideration 

 of receiving the timber which the lumberers are 

 to bring down the rivers the following summer. 

 The stock deemed Kqaisiteiov a, lumbering party 

 consists of axes, a cross-cut saw, cooking utensils, 

 a cask of mm, tobacco, and pipes, a sufficient 

 quantity of biscuit, pork, beef, and fish; peas 

 and pearl barley for soup, with a cask of molasses 

 to sweeten a decoction usually made of shrubs, 

 or of the tops of the hemlock tree, and taken as 

 tea. Two or three yokes of oxen, with suffi- 

 cient hay to feed them, are also required to haul 

 the timber out of the woods. 



"When thus prepared, these people proceed 

 up the rivers, with the provisions, to the place 

 fixed on for their winter establishment; which 

 is selected as near a stream of water, and in the 

 midst of as much pine timber, as possible. They 

 commence by clearing away a few of the sur- 

 rounding trees, and building a camp of round 

 logs, the walls of which are seldom more than 

 four or five feet high; the roof is covered with 

 birch bark or boards. A pit is dug under the 

 camp to preserve any thing liable to injury from 

 the frost. The fire is either in the middle or at 

 one end; the smoke goes out through the roof; 

 hay, straw, or fir branches are spread across or 

 along the whole length of this habitation, on 

 which they all lie down together at night to 

 sleep, with their feet next the fire. When the 

 fire gets low, he who first awakes, or feels cold, 

 springs up, and throws on five or six billets; and 

 in this way, they manage to have a large fire all 

 night. One person is hired as cook, whose duty 

 it is to have breakfast ready before daylight; at 

 which time all the party rise, when each takes 

 his morning, or the indispensable dram of raw 

 rum immediately before breakfast. This meal 

 consists of bread, or occasionally potatoes, with 

 boiled beef, pork, or fish, and tea sweetened with 



