114 How to Know the Trees 



small. The twigs and the bark on the trunk are 

 dark brown. The wood is white and very soft. 

 It is filled with a resinous sap which oozes out 

 through cracks in the bark, and hardens into 

 gum. 



The roots of the spruce furnished the only 

 thread and rope that the Northern Indians knew 

 before the coming of the white man. The Indian 

 brave used this "wattap," as he called it, to 

 lace the bark sides of his canoe and wigwam, and 

 sometimes it was woven into dishes and baskets. 

 The early settlers in some places found the 

 spruce useful for the walls and flooring of their 

 houses. Recently and for many years, almost 

 all the paper used for newspapers has been made 

 of wood pulp manufactured from spruce trees. 



