V. 1. THE CANOE BIRCH. 211 



scales three-lobed at base, and also slightly ciliate. The stig- 

 mas are longer than in the white birch, and give the slender 

 aments a rougher appearance. When mature, the fertile cat- 

 kins are cylindrical, an inch and a quarter or half long, pendu- 

 lous on slender stalks half an inch in length. They are made 

 up of imbricated, three-lobed scales, the middle lobe acute, the 

 side lobes orbicular, enclosing three ovate seeds, with broad thin 

 membranaceous wings and persistent stiles, resembling a winged 

 insect with antenna?. The fruit, like that of the other birches, 

 is full grown in July, at which time the male catkins of the 

 next year begin to show themselves at the ends of the branches. 



From the tough, incorruptible bark of the canoe birch, were 

 formed the canoes of the former inhabitants of New England, 

 models of ingenuity and taste, so admirably adapted, by their 

 lightness and shape, to the interrupted navigation of the savage. 

 Michaux has given an interesting account of the various uses 

 of the bark: — 



" In Canada, and in the District of Maine, the country peo- 

 ple place large pieces of it immediately below the shingles of 

 the roof, to form a more impenetrable covering for their houses; 

 baskets, boxes and portfolios are made of it, which are some- 

 times embroidered with silk of different colors; divided into 

 very thin sheets, it forms a substitute for paper; and, placed 

 between the soles of the shoes and in the crown of the hat, it is 

 a defence against humidity. But the most important purpose 

 to which it is applied, and one in which it is replaced by the 

 bark of no other tree, is the construction of canoes. To procure 

 proper pieces, the largest and smoothest trunks are selected : in 

 the spring, two circular incisions are made several feet apart, 

 and two longitudinal ones on opposite sides of the tree ; after 

 which, by introducing a wooden wedge, the bark is easily de- 

 tached. These plates are usually ten or twelve feet long, and 

 two feet nine inches broad. To form the canoe, they are stitched 

 together with fibrous roots of the white spruce, about the size 

 of a quill, which are deprived of the bark, split, and suppled 

 in water. The seams are coated with resin of the Balm of Gil- 

 ead. Great use is made of these canoes by the savages and by 

 the French Canadians, in their long journeys into the interior of 



