CHAP. CXIII. coni'fer^.. ^^bies. 2307 



the order commonly observed, and forms a few chasms, which have a good 

 effect. When this is the case, the spruce fir ranks among picturesque trees. 

 Sometimes it has as good an effect, and in many circumstances a better, 

 when the contrast appears still stronger ; when the tree is shattered by 

 some accident, has lost many of its branches, and is scathed and ragged. 

 A feathery branch, here and there, among broken stumps has often an 

 admirable effect ; but it must arise from some particular situation. In all 

 circumstances, however, the spruce fir appears best either as a single tree, 

 or unmixed with any of its fellows ; for neither it, nor any of the spear- 

 headed race, will ever form a beautiful clump without the assistance of other 

 trees." {For. Sceii., i. p. 93.) " Luxuriantly as the spruce fir grows with us in 

 Britain," says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, " we must crave for it the same justice 

 we have demanded for the Scotch pine, and deprecate any rash judgment 

 being formed, either on its external appearance, or on its timber, from 

 any other than the specimens exhibited in its native forests; where in- 

 dividuals are to be found 150 ft. high, and with trunks 5 ft. in diameter. 

 The spruce fir is the great tree of the Alps ; and, so far as our opinion 

 of its effect in landscape may go, we can only say that, with us, it is 

 so mentally associated with the grandeur of Swiss scenery, that the sight 

 of it never fails to touch chords in our bosom which awaken the most 

 pleasing recollections. What can be more truly sublime than to behold, 

 opposed to the intensely blue ether, the glazed white summits of Mont 

 Blanc, or the Jungfrau, rising over the interminable forests of spruce 

 firs which clothe the bases of the mountains ; whilst some such gigantic 

 specimens as those we have been noticing rise in groups among the rocks 

 before us, many of them shivered, broken, and maimed by tempests, their 

 dark forms opposed to all the brilliant prismatic hues of some immense 

 gorgeous glacier, which nourishes in its vast bosom a mighty river, that 

 is doomed to fertilise and to enrich whole kingdoms." (Lauder's Gilpin, i. 

 p. 178.) Sir James Edward Smith observes that the long, sweeping, fan-like 

 branches of the spruce, after broken down by loads of snow, and boiste- 

 rous winds, have a grand effect in alpine landscapes, and have been well 

 employed in the sublime compositions of Salvator Rosa and the German 

 engravers. 



The resinous Products of the Spruce Fir are of a different kind from those 

 of most of the trees of the genus Pinus. The sap does not flow from the tree 

 in the form of turpentine, but slowly oozes out from between the bark and 

 the soft wood, hardening by exposure to the air. The principal product of 

 this tree is the Burgundy pitch of the shops, which is the congealed sap 

 melted, and clarified by boiling it in water. To collect it, the operator, 

 in spring, before the sap is in motion, cuts out a strip of bark 3 ft. long, and 

 1 in. or ]iin. wide, vertically from the south side of the tree, as deep as the 

 soft wood, but without wounding it. This is done with an instrument made 

 on purpose, resembling a knife, with a crooked blade at one end, and a 

 flat blunt piece of iron at the other. The lower part of the incision, which 

 is brought down to within 20 in. of the ground, is cut sloping, so as to prevent 

 the rain water from lodging in the groove. As soon as the sap is in motion, 

 the sides of this groove begin to fill with resinous matter, which, however, 

 accumulates very slowly ; and it is not till the month of July or August in 

 the following year that the groove will be full ; when the resin is scraped out 

 with the hooked-bladed knife before mentioned, and put into a conical 

 basket, or scuttle, made of bark, till wanted for manufacturing. Li the 

 spring of the next year, a thin slice of bark is cut off each side of the groove ; 

 and in the August of the year following, a second crop of resin is obtained; 

 but this is much inferior to the first. As the process may be carried so far 

 as to destroy the tree, the following rules have been laid down by Hartig 

 for procuring the resin : — 1st, To choose the trees only from forests destined 

 to furnish wood for fuel. 2dly, Not to begin to extract resin till within 10 or 

 12 years of the period when the trees are destined to be cut down; and 



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