FOREST TREES. 



155 



for the table of the backwoods settler. But now, the saw-mills, and 

 saw-logs, the pine-bark and the saw-dust, have driven away the fish by 

 rendering the water unhealthy and poisonous, and the game laws have 

 told hard upon the poor Indian also. The little fishing skiff, and 

 the fish-spear, like the natives, are passing away. 



The pine-knots, still however, have their uses in lighting up the 

 caboose fires on the lumber rafts, and, may be, in the far backwoods 

 shanty the settler's wife still performs her evening task of sewing and 

 knitting by the blaze of the pine knots and roots, which the younger 

 children have collected before the wintry snow has hidden them away 

 under its cold, fleecy covering. 



There are still lingering among some of the older settlers, those who 

 can recall to mind the time when lamps and candles were hard to 

 obtain, and the evening light was supplied by these homely gleanings 

 from the forest. I have seen a cheerful circle gathered round the wide 

 hearth so lighted up. The litttle ones shared the rugs of the bear and 

 and wolf skin with the favoured hound and shaggy retriever, while the 

 glancing light fell on the swiftly plied knitting-needles ot the mother 

 and elder sisters, and the father sat quietly enjoying the cheerful scene, 

 and rest from a day of manly toil, or superintending some rustic work 

 of his sons. Nor was there any want of pleasant talk or memories and 

 tales of better days, to entertain us as we sat listening in that log-house 

 by the light of the pine-knots. Ah, well ! if those days of the old 

 pioneers in the backwoods had their privations, they also had their 

 pleasures : they remain as way-marks on the journey of life, and are not 

 without their uses. 



The White Pine generally occupies the ridges of light land above the 

 shores of lakes and streams, not flourishing on the low alluvial flats and 

 swampy ground. In wettish soil, such as old beaver meadows, the tree 

 becomes gnarled, and knotty and misshapen, throwing out many rugged, 

 twisted branches, and is utterly useless as timber. 



On castmg your eye along the border land of any of our inland" 

 waters a distinct series of vegetable productions may be noted, each 

 belt distinguished from the other. 



First, then, we perceive on the ground nearest to the water, rooted 

 in the deep alluvial soil, dwarf Willows of several kinds, the Red-barked 

 Cornel, Black Alder, American Guelder-Rose, Poplars, and some 

 kinds of Hawthorn ; and wreathing these in leafy-tangled masses, 

 the Frost and Fox Grape vines. Then come Cedars, Black Ash, the 

 fragrant Balsam Poplar and Balsam Fir. These moisture-loving trees 

 fill up the lower range. The stately White Pine towering above takes 

 the high ground, often in a continuous belt, while the deciduous, or 



