
          465.

brook.  The woods here are composed almost entirely of pines and oaks.
Many  of the pines are fine handsome trees.  Near our camp, and covering
several acres lay hundreds of trees and, also, still standing, were
a great many dead<s>trees</s>ones.  What could have caused this 
devastation?  We were unable to explain it.  The only cause that
we thought could possibly explain it was a fire.  Having picked out the
site of our camp, our next work was the building of our camp
fire.  This to-day wasn't an elaborate one, for we had plenty of
wood, and that of the best kind.  The trees were all covered with
a thin coating of ice, but by using a liberal supply of paper, and
taking only the thinnest twigs we could find, we had no trouble in <s>mak</s>starting
our fire.  All wood was soon stacked around forming a cone-shaped
heap.  Considering the condition of the wood encased as it was in ice,
it was surprising to see how quickly our fire grew in size.  This no
doubt is the only & proper way of building a fire.  To-day we had
hardly any wind, yet the roaring of the flames, caused by the artificial 
<s>drap drought</s> draft was something wonderful.  Near our fire
lay the immense trunk of a pine which served as a seat.

After we had enjoyed our fire for some time we prepared coffee and
ate our dinner.  We remained in camp, till about 2 o'clock when we
        