In the years following my purchase of considerable tracts of timber on these waters, I found it necessary, annually, to make a trip into the country where our timber lands were situated, to ascertain whether or not there had been near-by logging camps during the preceding winter, and if so, to carefully run out the lines around our own timber, to determine whether or not trespass had been committed on any of them. In many instances I found that this was the fact. One spring I found a very considerable number of the best pine trees cut from the interior of forty acres of excellent timber, so that the selling value of the whole tract was injured far more than the full value of the amount of timber that had been unlawfully cut and hauled away. The trespass had been committed by a man prominent in the community and well-known among the lumbermen of the Wisconsin River. The late Gust Wilson of Wisconsin, a fine man, a lawyer of much experience in lumber cases in that state, and whose counsel was considered of a high order, was retained to bring suit to recover the value of the timber trespassed. Not only that, but, annoyed at the boldness of the trespass, I wished also to have him prosecuted criminally for theft. Mr. Wilson said in reply to the request, "Now, don't try that. All of those fellows have had 'some of them hams,' and you can't get a jury in all that country that will bring you in a verdict of guilty, no matter how great and strong your evidence may be." There was nothing left to do under Mr. Wilson's advice but to cool off, keep smiling, and collect the best price for the stumpage taken (not stolen), so as to be polite to the gentlemanly wrongdoer. One spring, accompanied by Mr. W. B. Buckingham, cashier of one of the national banks at Stevens Point, who also owned interests in valuable pine timber lands adjacent to, or near by those in which I owned interests, I went into the countries of the Spirit and Willow Rivers. The snow was melting and the waters nearly filled the banks of the respective streams. Wishing to cross the Spirit River, we found a point where an island occupied the near center of the stream, on which was a little standing timber. A tree was felled, the top of which landed on the island. Having crossed on the tree to the island, we felled another tree which reached from the island to the farther shore. It was not large in diameter, and, under the weight of Mr. Buckingham, who first proceeded, it swayed until he lost his balance and fell into the water and was obliged to swim to the opposite shore. I was more fortunate in this instance, and stayed on the tree until I reached the shore. [Illustration: "We succeeded in crossing Burnt Side Lake". (Page 146.)]