BAD ROADS. 
379 
village: it is said that several respectable persons have had 
ghmpses of a panther in our hills during the last two months ! 
Probably they have been deceived, for it seems all but incredible 
that one of these wild creatures should really have appeared in 
our woods. It is between forty and fifty years since any panther 
has been heard of in this neighborhood. 
Thursday, 16 th. — Lovely day ; bright air and soft sky. Per- 
haps the farmers will prove right about the Indian summer, after 
all. The walking is very bad ; the late snow and last night's 
rain making a sad muss. Still, those who delight in the open air, 
may verify the old proverb : " Where there is a will there is a 
way one may pick out spots for walking, here and there. 
The new-fashioned plank- walks have not yet become general 
here ; they are convenient in muddy Aveather, though very ugly 
at other times. The neatest side-walk for a village or rural town 
seems to be a strip of brick, or stone pavement, three or four feet 
wide, with a broad border of grass on each side, where trees are 
planted, such as they have them in some of the Western villages. 
The plank roads and walks will probably be introduced here be- 
fore long ; they will use up an immense amount of timber, and 
one would think that this must eventually put a stop to them. 
It is said that the hemlock timber, which is used for the purpose, 
never attains to any great size in its second growth ; such is the 
opinion here ; whether it be correct or not, I do not know. There 
seems no good reason why it should not grow out of the old for- 
ests, as well as the pine. 
The roads are at their worst just now ; the stage-coach was 
ten hours yesterday coming the twenty-two miles from the rail- 
road. That particular route, however, crossing the hills to the 
