similar angle to meet it, making a wide open angle between the two. The
odds would, I think, have been taken by most of those who went there as
being in favour of the Canadians; and it was a great surprise when the
three Australian trees were all down in thirty-one minutes and eight
seconds.

The New Zealanders cut third. Their team consisted of Maoris. They did
not seem to be cutting with the fire of the Australians. There was not
the visible energy; their actions struck one as easier, and one doubted
if their great, lithe, brown muscles were carrying them so fast.

Yet the time told the truth. Their three trees were down in twenty-two
minutes and forty seconds, and no one else approached them. One Canadian
team improved the Canadian time to forty-five minutes twenty-two
seconds. The Maoris seemed mostly to cut with a narrower scarf even than
the Canadians, both upper and lower cuts sloping downward at a narrow
angle. In fairness it must be said that the Maoris had practised about
six weeks, the Canadians and Australians about one week.

An Australian won the log-chopping competition; and the Canadians won
with the crosscut saw. A New Zealander won the competition for style.

Later the men were mostly sitting watching the Frenchmen, workers in the
forest, giving an exhibition cut. Two of a Canadian team were sitting on
a log next to me, yarning in the slow, quizzical drawl of the Canadian
countryman, when some of their mates sat down beside them. The man next
me turned to them, and the next instant they were all talking French
among themselves, talking it as their native tongue. Their officer, a
handsome youngster, spoke it too. It was not till that moment that I
realised that most of these Canadian woodsmen here were French.