The weather held cold and clear.
Now it became necessary to put the roads in shape for hauling.

All winter the blacksmith, between his tasks of shoeing and mending, had occupied his time in fitting the iron-work on eight log-sleighs which the carpenter had hewed from solid sticks of timber.

They were tremendous affairs, these sleighs, with runners six feet apart, and bunks nine feet in width for the reception of logs.

The bunks were so connected by two loosely-coupled rods that, when emptied, they could be swung parallel with the road, so reducing the width of the sleigh.

The carpenter had also built two immense tanks on runners, holding each some seventy barrels of water, and with holes so arranged in the bottom and rear that on the withdrawal of plugs the water would flood the entire width of the road.