the only road to the
settlement. Here and there were swamps, which were made passable by
huge trunks of trees laid across the track, and bridges of timber, of a
primitive, though of a strong character, had already been thrown across
the streams.

"You see pioneers have been before us," observed Mr Todd to Donald.
"Settlers direct from the old country would have been appalled with the
difficulties the well-trained backwoodsmen have overcome."

Here and there were small clearings, in the centre of which log-houses
had been put up, to serve as wayside inns. At one of these Mr Todd and
his party halted as evening closed in. The accommodation was scanty,
though an ample meal of eggs and bacon and corn cakes, was served on a
long table which stood in the middle of the public room. Upon it,
beneath, and on the benches at the sides, the guests, wrapped in their
cloaks, with their saddles for pillow's, passed the night. Donald,
before lying down, went out to take a turn in front of the hut. As he
looked along the cutting towards the west, a bright glare met his eyes.
It at once struck him that the forest must be on fire, and he was
hastening back to warn his companions, when he met Mr Skinner.

"There is no danger," observed the latter. "We will proceed along the
road, and you will see the cause."

The light from the fire enabled them to find their way among the stumps,
and they soon saw before them an opening in the forest, in the centre of
which blazed a huge pile of vast trunks of trees, surrounded by men,
who, with long pitchforks, were throwing faggots under the trunks to
assist in consuming them.

"Although these trees would be worth many pounds by the water-edge, here
they are valueless and in the way, and no other mode has been discovered
of disposing of them," observed Mr Skinner to Donald. "Yet I always
regret to see the destruction of those magnificent productions with
which God has clothed the earth, but thousands and tens of thousands of
those monarchs of the forest are destined ere long to fall to make way
for the habitation of man. Yet one living soul is of more value than
them all, and we may hope that many a voice may be raised to Him in
hymns of praise amid this region, hitherto a wilderness, and which has
resounded only with the howl of the savage wolf, or the fierce war songs
of the long benighted inhabitants of the land."

A busy scene presented itself as the cavalcade at length reached the n