seventy or eighty pair of oxen, and drag them along 

 the snow. It is exceedingly difficult to put them 

 first into motion, which they call raising them; and 

 when they have once effected this, they never stop 

 upon any account whatsoever till they arrive at the 

 water's side. Frequently some of the oxen are taken 

 ill, upon which they immediately cut them out of the 

 gears; and are sometimes obliged, I was told, to de- 

 stroy five or six pair of them. The forests, where 

 these masts grow, are reserved to the crown, which 

 appoints a surveyor of them, who is commonly the 

 governor of this province. This is not the only ex- 

 pedient employed by government for the preserva- 

 tion of such trees as may be of use for the royal navy; 

 for there is an act of parliament, I believe, which 

 prohibits, under pain of certain fines and penalties, 

 the cutting down, or destroying of any white pine- 

 tree, of specified dimensions, not growing within the 

 boundaries of any township, without his majesty's 

 license, in any of the provinces of New England, 

 New York, or New Jersey: a restriction absolutely 

 necessary, whether considered as securing a pro- 

 vision for the navy, or as a check upon that very 

 destructive practice, taken from the Indians, of fire- 

 hunting. It used to be the custom for large com- 

 panies to go into the woods in the winter, and to set 

 fire to the brush and underwood, in a circle of several 

 miles. This circle gradually contracting itself, the 

 deer, and other wild animals, enclosed, naturally 



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