into barrels which stand near the boilers, ready to supply them as the
syrup boils down. When it reaches the consistence required for sugar, it
is poured into moulds of different forms. Visits to these sugar camps
are a great amusement of the young people of the neighbourhood in which
they are, who make parties for that purpose--the great treat is the
candy, made by dashing the boiling syrup on the snow, where it instantly
congeals, transparent and crisp, into sheets. At first the blazing fire
and boiling cauldron look strange, amid the solemn loneliness of the
forest, along whose stately aisles of cathedral-like grandeur the eye
may gaze for days, and see no living thing--the ear hear no sound, save
it may be the tapping of the woodpecker, or the whispering of the wind
as it sighs through the boughs, seeming to mourn with them for the time
when the white man knew them not. But these thoughts pass away when the
proprietor, with his pale intelligent face, shaded by a flapping sun hat
from the glaring snow, presses us hospitably to "take along a junk of
candy, a lump of sugar," or a cup of the syrup. He sees nothing
picturesque or romantic in the whole affair, and only calculates if it
will pay for the time it occupies; at the same time, with the produce of
his labours he is extremely "_clever_," this being the term for generous
or hospitable, and one is sometimes startled at its application,
especially to women; the persons in England, to whom it is applied, are
so unlike the clever women of New Brunswick, those dear old creatures,
who know not the difference between Milton and Dilworth, and whose very
woollen gowns are redolent of all-spice and apples.

Towards the latter part of March and April the breaking up of the ice
goes on gradually--some seasons, however, a sudden storm causes the ice
and snow to disappear rapidly, but generally a succession of soft warm
winds, and days partly sunshine and rain, does it more effectually, and
prevents the heavy freshets in the rivers, which are often destructive,