BROWSING AND NIBBLING. 101 



would have been too rank and savage for his 

 endurance. : 



The gums and resins of our woods are few. 

 The sweet-gum, or liquid amber, is the only 

 genuinely fine morsel of the sort to be found 

 within the boundaries of the United States. 

 It is a clear amber fluid (flowing from any cut 

 or wound in the tree), which soon hardens into 

 a stiff, translucent yellow wax, possessing a 

 pleasing aromatic taste and odor, strangely 

 fascinating. One does not care to eat it ; but, 

 once a lump of it goes into one s mouth, one 

 chews it until one s jaws are tired. I remem 

 ber, when I was a very little child, going to a 

 backwoods school in Missouri, where all the 

 pupils, both great and small, would chew 

 liquid amber from morning till night; the 

 teacher chewed tobacco. 



Browsing and nibbling has led me to taste 

 the inner bark of -nearly every kind of tree 

 growing in American woods. The hickory 

 tree has a sap almost as sweet as that of the 

 maple, but it mingles with the sweet a pun 

 gency and a slightly acrid element of taste at 

 once pleasing and repellent to the pampered 

 tongue. The oaks have much tannin in their 

 bark, the astringency of which draws one s 

 lips like green persimmons ; but the very 

 innermost part, next the wood, is slightly 

 mucilaginous and faintly sweet. Speaking of 

 persimmons after a few sharp frosts this 

 wild fruit becomes mellow and rich, but to the 

 last retains a certain drawing quality, a trace 

 of that astringency already mentioned, which 

 keeps it from being a favorite, save with the 

 opossums. 



There is no other woodland influence, how- 



