FOREST TREES. 



171 



in mist or dew. Rank sedges and other moisture-loving herbs, and 

 mosses, and fungi, take the place ot a more healthy vegetation. A 

 change is effected, both in the soil and its products, which might lead 

 us to the conclusion that many of our Cedar swamps have thus been 

 originated where once a very different order of things existed. Such 

 fact? are suggestive of the changes that are continually taking place in 

 the country, and are not without interest to students of the physical 

 geography of our land. 



"This Cedar is the most durable wood in Canada," says Professor 

 Kalm, a writer of the last century, in his travels in North America who 

 enters largely into the uses and valuable properties of the White Cedar. 

 He writes thus : " The enclosures are made of the White Cedar, the 

 palisades of the forts, the planks, the houses, and the thin narrow 

 pieces which form the ribs of the bark canoes used here are of Cedar, 

 being when fresh cut, pliable and easily bent, and very light. The 

 branches of the Cedar are made into besoms by the Indians, and every- 

 where used in the houses, and give out a peculiar and pleasant scent." 

 The writer then gives directions for making use of the Cedar medici- 

 nally in cases of rheumatism : " The green leaves being well pounded 

 are boiled down in lard and applied as a plaster, which eases the violence 

 of the pains very shortly. An Iroquois Indian told me that a decoc- 

 tion of Cedar was used by his people as a remedy for coughs, colds and 

 consumption. This acted probably as a sudorific, also used in inter- 

 mittent fevers." — Kalm. 



Evelyn speaks of the salubrious nature of resinous trees, among 

 which he mentions especially the Pine, Juniper, Firs and Cedars. He 

 suggests the introduction of Cypress and Cedar wood for sanative pur- 

 poses into our dwellings in the form of wainscots, shelves, tables, and 

 other articles of household use, which he quaintly observes " would 

 greatly cure the malignancy of the air." 



It was the custom, possibly adopted from this writer's influence, at 

 the time of the Plague in 1666 to burn large bundles and boughs of all 

 5orts of resmous woods in the streets of London, to purify the infected 

 air. Many carried sprigs of Cedar or Juniper in their vests or hands. 



I have been told by lumbermen that Jt is not the chopj)ers and 

 hewers and other men that work in the Pinewoods that suffer from agues 

 and intermittent fevers, the resinous exhalations of the Pines being 

 invigorating, pure and healthy. It is the settlers on newly cleared 

 hardwood land where the virgin soil is opened to the influence of the 

 rays of the sun, and it is the gases that are set free from the moist 

 vegetable mould that are so injurious to health. 



