Forest life in Acadie : Sketches of sport and natural history in the lower provinces of the Canadian dominion . Tnent. At the head waters ofsome insignificant brook, and in the neighbourhood ofgood timber, these hardy sons of the forest fell the trees,and cut and square them into logs, dragging them to theedge of the stream, into whose swollen waters they arerolled at the breaking up of winter and melting of thesnow, to find their way through almost endless difficultiesto the sea. That most useful animal in the woods, theox, accompanies the lumberers to their remote forestcamps, and drags the
Forest life in Acadie : Sketches of sport and natural history in the lower provinces of the Canadian dominion . Tnent. At the head waters ofsome insignificant brook, and in the neighbourhood ofgood timber, these hardy sons of the forest fell the trees,and cut and square them into logs, dragging them to theedge of the stream, into whose swollen waters they arerolled at the breaking up of winter and melting of thesnow, to find their way through almost endless difficultiesto the sea. That most useful animal in the woods, theox, accompanies the lumberers to their remote forestcamps, and drags the logs to the side of the stream. Itis really wonderful to watch these animals, -well managed,performing their laborious tasks in the forest: urged onand directed solely by the encouraging voice of the team-ster, the honest team drag the huge pine-log o^er therough inequalities of the gTound, over rocks, and thi-oughtreacherous swamps and thickets, with almost unaccount-able ease and safety, where the horse would at once be-come confused, frightened, and injured, besides failing on. SAR^ THE LIMI3ERER-S CAMP IX WIXTEFl I THE FORESTS OF ACADIE. 29 the score of comparative strengtli. Slowly Ijut surelythe ox performs incredible feats of draught in the woods,and asks for no more care than the shelter of a roughshed near the lumberers camp, with a store of coarse wildhay, and a diink at the neighbouring brook. This aristocrat of the forest, Pinus strobus, refuses togrow in the black swamp or open bog, which it leaves topoverty-stricken spruces and larches, nor in its communi-ties will it tolerate much undergrowth. Pine woods arepeculiarly open and easy to traverse. Bracken, and butlittle else, gTows beneath, and the foot treads noiselesslyon a soft shppery surface of fallen tassels. A peculiarlysoft subdued light pervades these groves—a ray here andthere falling on the white blossoms of the pigeon berry(Cornus Canadensis) in summer, or, later, on its brightscarlet clusters of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, booksubjecthunting, booksubjectnaturalhistory
