e had not much cause to fear them, unless they possessed
firearms. On we went, I say, gliding along at the rate of ten or twelve
miles an hour; and as I had never before had an opportunity of
performing so great a distance, I enjoyed it amazingly.

As we advanced we caught sight of numerous logs of timber hauled out
into the middle of the stream. Shortly afterwards the sound of voices
reached our ears, and we saw a number of men scattered about--some
engaged, with gleaming axes, in felling trees; others with horses
dragging the trunks, placed on sleighs, over the hard snow on to the
ice. They were there arranged alongside each other, and bound together
so as to form numerous small rafts. Here they would remain until the
giving way of the frost; when, on the disappearance of the ice, they
would be floated down towards the mouth of the river and towed across
the lake to the various saw-mills on its banks.

We were glad to be welcomed by the "boss;" who at once engaged Uncle
Mark and Mike to hew, while I was to undertake the less onerous task of
driving a team.

The shores of the river had been already pretty well cleared of large
timber, so that I had to bring the trunks from some distance.

Uncle Mark and Laffan soon showed that they were well practised axemen.

Our companions were to spend some months engaged in the occupation I
have described; till the return of spring, in fact, when, the rafts
being put together, they would descend the river till rapids or
cataracts were reached. The rafts would then be separated, and each log
of timber, or two or three together at most, would be allowed to make
their way as they best could down the fall, till they reached calm water
at the foot of it; when they would be again put together, and navigated
by the raftsmen guiding them with long poles. In some places, where
rough rocks exist in the rapids by which the timber might be injured,
slides had been formed. These slides are channels, or rather canals, as
they are open at the top; and are constructed of thick boards--just as
much water being allowed to rush down them as will drive on the logs.
Some of these slides are two hundred feet long; others reach even to the
length of seven hundred feet. The timbers are placed on cribs,--which
are frames to fit the slides,--then, with a couple of men on them to
guide their course, when they get through they shoot away at a furious
rate down the inclined plane, and without the s