Where wild America in vastness lies, Three diverse hordes the swamps and woods infest. Banded or singly these make man their prize: Travellers in forest rude, with veil are fain gain. O wise in trials great, in troubles small, Who know to find mementos of the fall! Gay's fable of the man and the flea; the insect being there made to declare, in repression of human arrogance and self-elation, "that men were made for fleas to eat." 9 I have been assured, that the cattle, in situations where this protection is provided for them, come lowing to the house to have the fire renewed, if it happens to fail. It is necessary, sometimes, that they should stand in a thick smoke to be milked. XVI. The Lumberers. On finding the traces of the lumber-men at the portage of Le Paresseux, above the little cave called La Porte d'Enfer, in the Petite Rivière falling into the main branch of the Mattawan. AND have you penetrated up to this, Ye enterprising souls, for lucre's sake! These wilds not wild enough your feet to miss! These solitudes your echoing axe must wake! Lo! now the leap your plunder cannot take Of these white falls; and, choking all the place, The square-hewn masts a heap'd confusion make. So severed, so disorder'd, oft the race Following the lumberer's task; and we may trace, Alas! their picture in this tumbled wood, Strown all irregular upon the face Of human life, and mark'd by little good. Yet good will come: they pierce the desert's heart, And fill of pioneers the useful part. |