396 THE SPKUCE FIR. 



The timber of the Spruce Fir has for an unknown 

 period been imported into Britain from Norway, chiefly 

 in the form of entire trunks, which are used for scaffolding- 

 poles, spars, oars, and masts for small craft ; but partly, 

 also, sawn into planks or deals, known in common as 

 white deal, white Baltic deal, and white Christiania deal, 

 the wood having a red hue only when the tree is grown 

 in certain soils and situations. The poles, spars, and oars 

 are the thinnings of the Norwegian woods ; and the deals 

 and planks are made from the larger trees which are left. 

 The slenderest poles are taken from the largest and oldest 

 woods, and are called seedlings ; they are always found 

 where the wood is most dense, and very often close by the 

 side of a larger tree. They grow very tall and slender, 

 wholly without branches except at the summit, and, 

 'though often only a few inches in diameter, are of great 

 age. 



Nothing can be finer than the Spruce-timber of the 

 Alps, which is so tough, that the natives are actually in 

 the habit of kindling fires about the trees so as to burn 

 them down, to save their own trouble and the edge of 

 the axe. 



The Spruce Fir, besides furnishing large quantities of 

 valuable timber, produces the substance known by the 

 name of Burgundy pitch. To produce this resin, the 

 collector, in the spring, before the sap begins to ascend, 

 cuts off a long vertical strip of bark from the south side 

 of the tree, as deep as the soft wood, but without wound- 

 ing it. The sap exudes very slowly from between the bark 

 and the wood, and hardens on exposure to the air. In 

 about three or fo'ur months afterwards the groove is found 

 filled with dry resin, which is then collected and purified 

 by being melted in boiling water. 



The uses of deal are too numerous and well known to 

 be noticed here. The bark is used in tanning. In Sweden 

 and Norway the inner bark is made into baskets ; and the 

 canoes, which are made of the timber of the large trees, 



