lightest risk of injury.

When evening approached we all assembled in a huge shanty, which had
been built under the shelter of the thick bush. Round it were arranged
rows of bunks, with the cooking-stove in the centre, which was kept
burning at all hours, and served thoroughly to warm our abode. On each
side of the stove were tables, with benches round them. Here we took
our meals; which, although sufficient, were not too delicate,--salt pork
being the chief dish. Rough as were the men, too, they were tolerably
well-behaved; but quarrels occasionally took place, as might have been
expected among such a motley crowd.

On the first evening of our arrival Mike's fiddle attracted universal
attention, and he was, of course, asked to play a tune.

"Why thin, sure, I will play one with all the pleasure in life," he
answered. "And, sure, some of you gintlemen will be afther loiking to
take a dance;" and without more ado he seated himself on the top of a
bench at the further end of the shanty, and began to scrape away with
might and main, nodding his head and kicking his heels to keep time.
The effect was electrical. The tables were quickly removed to the sides
of the shanty; and every man, from the "boss" downwards, began shuffling
away, circling round his neighbour, leaping from the ground, and
shrieking at the top of his voice.

When Mike's fiddle was not going, our lumbering companions were wont to
spin long yarns, as we sat at the supper-table. Several of them had
worked up the northern rivers of Canada, where the winter lasts much
longer than it does in the district I am describing; and among these was
a fine old French Canadian, Jacques Michaud by name, who had come south
with a party, tempted by the prospect of obtaining a pocketful of
dollars. He stood six feet two inches in his stockings; and his
strength was in proportion to his size. At the same time, he was one of
the most good-natured and kind-hearted men I ever met.

Among our party were several rough characters; and it happened that one
evening two of them fell out. They were about to draw their knives,
when Jacques seized each of them in his vice-like grasp, and, holding
them at arm's-length, gradually lifted them off the ground. There he
kept them; mildly expostulating,--now smiling at one, and now at the
other,--till they had consented to settle their dispute amicably; he
then set them on their legs again, and made them shake hands.

This man