lOO 
VI. LUMBERMEN AND ' RAFTSMEN 
are more than 5 to 5| feet in diameter, as such huge 
pieces are too awkward to handle. 
The felling and cutting up of the trees takes place as 
a rule in the dry season, that is, between June and 
October. The next work is to clear the track by which 
these mighty logs, weighing sometimes as much as 
three tons, are to be rolled to the nearest piece of 
water. Then begins a contest with the roots which 
have been left in the ground and the huge tree tops 
which are lying upon it, and not infrequently the 
mighty trunk itself has in its fall embedded itself three 
feet in the soil. But in time the track is got fairly 
ready, the portions which run through swamp being 
filled up with wood. The pieces — spoken of as “ billets ” 
(French, hilles ) — are rolled on to the track, thirty men, 
with rhythmical shouts, pushing and shoving at each 
one and turning it slowly over and over on its axis. 
If a piece is very large, or not quite round, human 
strength may not suffice, and the movement is effected 
by means of jacks. Then a hillock in the way may pre- 
sent a difficulty to be overcome ; or, again, the wood- 
packing in the swamp may give way ! The thirty men 
in an afternoon’s work seldom move one of these 
" billets ’’ more than eighty to ninety yards. 
And time presses ! All the timber must be got to the 
pond to be ready for the high water at the end of 
November and the beginning of December, since it is 
only just then that the pond is in connection with the 
rivers. Any timber that misses this connection re- 
mains in the forest, and is reduced to such a condition 
by the parasitic wood-insects — especially by a species 
of Bostrichid beetle — ^that it is not worth buying. At 
best it can be saved when the spring high water comes. 
