730 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Ncv. 6, 1909. 
§3 
§ 
h 
S3 
3 
girth, and of walrus hide traces. These latter 
will stand a strain of several thousand pounds. 
In their absence the a’l moose skin harness is 
the strongest, most comfortable and most con¬ 
venient. Of course a riveted leather harness 
may be purchased at almost any frontier har¬ 
ness shop, but they are heavy, stiff, uncomfort¬ 
able and lacking in wearing qualities. Many 
sets of dog harness are made of canvas, rein¬ 
forced by ropes sewn lengthways into the traces. 
1 have used both canvas and webbing harness 
and have found them serviceable and convenient 
if equipped with snaps and rings. There is 
nothing more discouraging than to rise from a 
snowy couch before break of dawn and to 
grapple with' the stiffened strings or icy buckles 
of a frozen harness. Then the awful cold gets 
in its work, and toes and fingers, ears and nose 
are nipped by Jack Frost in a most impartial 
and thorough manner. My choice of a dog 
harness would be one of well tanned moose skin 
thoroughly stretched, with traces five and one- 
half or six feet long, adjusted by means of 
snaps and rings and without bells or ornaments 
of any kind. With such an equipment a dog 
train wo.uld be at its best. The weight of a 
string of bells often exceeds ten pounds per 
dog, while five pounds is a common weight. 
Often the backs of a train of dogs are covered 
by beautifully embroidered blankets, while large 
plumes or foxtails adorn their collars. All such 
adornments must be sacrificed when speed, 
strength or endurance are to be put to the test. 
I never made it a practice to use beds in those 
infrequented wilds. Often I have seen an In¬ 
dian attach two or more dogs to his sled by 
means of his woolen sash or scarf of many 
T HE most picturesque woodsmen of this 
continent are the small army of forest 
cruisers who make a living in the back 
counties of Maine at occupations that are as 
odd and unfamiliar as they are sometimes profit¬ 
able. The hunter who spends a few brief weeks 
in the great woods occasionally stumbles over 
one of the camps of these restless forest rangers, 
but if he is permitted to get a glimpse of the 
men at home the chances are that he cannot 
draw any information from them concerning 
their work. They are the least communicative 
of all the forest inhabitants, and they fear that 
too many people will rob them of their spoils 
and crowd them in their favorite haunts. 
The wood scavengers follow the trail of the 
lumber camps or penetrate the dense wilderness 
to ply their trade. They make a living off the 
leavings of the lumberman, or preceding him, 
gather the products of the woods without in¬ 
juring the trees. There is a standing quarrel 
between the two. The lumber jacks and the 
employes of the pulp mills look upon the roarn- 
ers as idle, shiftless fellows ready to steal good 
timber whenever they have a chance, so they 
are watched suspiciously. On the other hand 
the scavengers, or at least some of them, con- 
colors that encircled his waist. In an emergency 
anything will do for a harness. 
Certainly dogs must eat, and to feed so many 
ravenous beasts is quite an undertaking. The 
ordinary day’s ration for a working dog con¬ 
sists of two whitefish or their equivalent in 
other food. This amounts to a total of 3,650 
whitefish for a train of five dogs during a year’s 
time. To lower this total a dog’s allowance is 
reduced to one fish per day when he is not work¬ 
ing, and at times his ration is still further re¬ 
duced, while in the summer he is supposed to 
largely fish for himself. He is then turned 
loose to hunt all the livelong day, being usually 
looked after by some decrepit Indian. 
The poor dog of the Indian rarely receives 
a regular meal. He is compelled to journey day 
after day, receiving the most meager allowance 
of food and oft-times retires supperless to bur¬ 
row in the snow and try vainly to> forget his 
hunger. This will be seen to be more cruel 
when it is explained that the supper of the 
sled dog is his one daily meal. At the close of 
the day’s journey the fish are thawed partially 
and given to him. A law should be enacted 
compelling the Indian to provide for his animals 
or to properly dispose of them. 
I have witnessed many cases of cruelty among 
the traders and their halfbreed dog drivers 
Many times white men have thrown dogs out 
upon the snow to die after having inhumanly 
beaten and bruised them. They were left in a 
battered and bleeding condition, to die from 
starvation or to be torn in pieces by the wolves. 
No one should be allowed to possess so faith¬ 
ful an animal as is the dog unless he is capable 
of treating him humanely. 
sider the lumber mills as destructive to their 
work and they are not slow to resent it. 
The oddest of these men are the gum pickers. 
They are the pioneer woodsmen of Maine, or at 
least come close after the trappers. They range 
the primitive forests in advance of the lumber¬ 
men and openly decry the destruction of the big 
trees. For when Maine’s spruce trees are all 
cut down there will be no longer any gum 
pickers, and the tribe will be automatically ex¬ 
tinguished. But to-day they are quite numerous 
and make a good living at their trade. 
Spruce gum brings all the way from $1 to 
$1.50 per pound and the pickers may gather 
several pounds a day. “Spruce Gum Bill,” an 
old picker of the Moosehead region, frequently 
in the season clears eight and ten dollars a day, 
and he has averaged as high as fifteen and even 
twenty dollars. But that was in the palmy days 
of gum picking when the supply was more liberal 
than to-day. 
“Spruce Gum Bill” invented another way to 
increase his profit, which has since been adopted 
by many others. It was a forcing process that 
made the trick. Selecting some good part of 
the woods away from any habitation he would 
mark his trees and wound them with his axe 
and chisel. Returning to the trees a year later 
he would find an abundant crop of gum oozing 
from the cuts. The gum is formed by the sap 
oozing from any cut, wound or crack in the 
bark, and if these are not made too deep or big 
the vitality of the tree is not seriously affected. 
The gum picker is the most traveled of all 
the Maine woodsmen. He ranges even further 
than the trapper, and not infrequently he circles 
around over a hundred mile trail. When he 
crosses the path of another picker who has in¬ 
vaded his district there is apt to be an ugly in¬ 
terview, for each picker is jealous of his own 
particular field of operation. 
The camp of the gum picker is ever on the 
move. It is rarely in one place more than a 
day or two. The camp is pitched on or under 
the snow and sometimes it is sheltered by rocks 
or fallen trees. The outfit consists of a few 
simple cooking utensils, flour, beans, molasses 
and coffee, climbers, snowshoes, an axe, a chisel 
and a sled. With this outfit two pickers can 
spend months in the woods and the cost of liv¬ 
ing will not amount to fifty cents a week. There 
is small game in the woods for replenishing their 
larder with fresh meat, and as they travel far 
and wide they must be prepared to live inde¬ 
pendent of all civilization. 
The kings of the gum pickers disdain to take 
notice of the small scraps and chippings found ' 
on the trees near the edge of the woods. Those 
are for the amateurs, the women and the chil- ■ 
dren. For them the big amber nuggets of the : 
interior, big warts and protuberances as large • 
as a turkey’s egg. High up on the trunks of j 
the trees the bulbs of gum grow, and sharp eyes : 
soon detect their presence. A tree with a single 
piece is not much of a find, but a sturdy old 
spruce that exudes the gum from a dozen or I 
more wounds may yield several dollars’ worth 
of the material. 
The pickers are by nature expert climbers; 
they must be or they would not make much 
money. With their climbers they can walk up 
the straightest and highest spruce tree that ever 
grew, and with their chisels they cut off the 
gum nuggets and climb down again. All day 
they work their way along, studying each tree, 
climbing and cutting and cleaning their gum. 
When night comes they go into camp, build their 
fire and cook their simple meal. Around the 
camp-fire they smoke and chat until slumber 
claims them. When morning comes they are 
off again, but not too early. They take their 
time and do not count every hour lost as wasted. 
They enjoy the beautiful scenery and inhale the 
pine-laden ozone of the high altitudes. It is a 
healthful and happy outdoor life. 
One of the most successful' gum pickers was 
a former New York clerk who went to Maine 
to repair a broken down body. In the Maine 
woods he found health and happiness, but he 
had to work to pay for existence. He took to 
gum picking and succeeded so well that he stuck 
to it. He has learned the ways of the woods 
and knows where the best spruce gum grows. 
He starts out with a companion early in the fall 
and makes a wide detour through the most un¬ 
frequented parts of the forest. When he re¬ 
turns to civilization in the early spring his big 
s’ed is piled high with bags of gum. And such 
gum! It is the purest found anywhere and clear 
as amber. This man is as strong, hale and 
hearty as any native. For him there is no life 
Maine Woods Gum Pickers 
By GEORGE ETHELBERT WALSH 
