In America, business is the first object in view at all times, and right it
is that it should be so. Soon after my hostess entered my room, accompanied
by the fine-looking woodsman, to whom, as Mr JEDIAH IRISH, I
was introduced. Reader, to describe to you the qualities of that excellent
man were vain; you should know him, as I do, to estimate the value of
such men in our sequestered forests. He not only made me welcome, but
promised all his assistance in forwarding my views.
The long walks and long talks we have had together I never can forget,
or the many beautiful birds which we pursued, shot, and admired.
The juicy venison, excellent bear flesh, and delightful trout that daily
formed my food, methinks I can still enjoy. And then, what pleasure I
had in listening to him as he read his favourite Poems of BURNS, while my
pencil was occupied in smoothing and softening the drawing of the bird
before me ! Was not this enough to recall to my mind the early impressions
that had been made upon it by the description of the golden age,
which I here found realized ?
The Lehigh about this place forms numerous short turns between the
mountains, and affords frequent falls, as well as below the falls deep
pools, Avhich render this stream a most valuable one for mills of any kind.
Not many years before this date, my host was chosen by the agent of the
Lehigh Coal Company, as their mill-wright, and manager for cutting down
the fine trees which covered the mountains around. He was young, robust,
active, industrious, and persevering. He marched to the spot where
his abode now is, with some workmen, and by dint of hard labour first
cleared the road mentioned above, and reached the river at the centre of
a bend, where he fixed on erecting various mills. The pass here is so
narrow that it looks as if formed by the bursting asunder of the mountain,
both sides ascending abruptly, so that the place where the settlement was
made i s in many parts difficult of access, and the road then newly cut
was only sufficient to permit men and horses to come to the spot where
JEDIAH and his men were at work. So great, in fact, were the difficulties
of access, that, as he told me, pointing to a spot about 150 feet above us,
they for many months slipped from it their barrelled provisions, assisted
by ropes, to their camp below. But no sooner was the first saw-mill erected,
than the axemen began their devastations. Trees one after another
were, and are yet, constantly heard falling, during the days ; and in calm
nights, the greedy mills told the sad tale, that in a century the noble forests
around should exist no more. Many mills were erected, many dams
raised, in defiance of the impetuous Lehigh. One full third of the trees
have already been culled, turned into boards, and floated as far as Philadelphia.
In such an undertaking, the cutting of the trees is not all. They have
afterwards to be hauled to the edge of the mountains bordering the river,
launched into the stream, and led to the mills over many shallows and
difficult places. Whilst I was in the Great Pine Swamp, I frequently
visited one of the principal places for the launching of logs. To see them
tumbling from such a height, touching here and there the rough angle of
a projecting rock, bouncing from it with the elasticity of a foot-ball, and at
last falling with awful crash into the river, forms a sight interesting in the
highest degree, but impossible for me to describe. Shall I tell you that I
have seen masses of these logs heaped above each other to the number of
five thousand ? I may so tell you, for such I have seen. My friend IRISH
assured me that at some seasons, these piles consisted of a much greater
number, the river becoming in those places completely choked up.
Whenfreshets (or floods) take place, then is the time chosen for forwarding
the logs to the different mills. This is called a Frolic. JEDIAH
I itisHJ who is generally the leader, proceeds to the upper leap with his men,
each provided with a strong wooden handspike, and a short-handled axe.
They all take to the water, be it summer or winter, like so many Newfoundland
spaniels. The logs are gradually detached, and, after a
time, are seen floating down the dancing stream, here striking against
a rock and whirling many times round, there suddenly checked in dozens
by a shallow, over which they have to be forced with the handspikes.
Now they arrive at the edge of a dam, and are again pushed over. Certain
numbers are left in each dam, and when the party has arrived at the
last, which lies just where my friend IRISH'S camp was first formed, the
drenched leader and his men, about sixty in number, make their way home,
find there a healthful repast, and spend the evening and a portion of the
night in dancing and frolicking, in their own simple manner, in the most
perfect amity, seldom troubling themselves with the idea of the labour
prepared for them on the morrow.
That morrow now come, one sounds a horn from the door of the storehouse,
at the call of which each returns to his work. The sawyers, the
millers, the rafters and raftsmen are all immediately busy. The mills are all
going, and the logs, which a few months before were the supporters of broad
and leafy tops, are now in the act of being split asunder. The boards are
then launched into the stream, and rafts are formed of them for market.