FOREST TREES. 277 



measure. The timber, though soft and inferior for general 

 carpentering purposes, is the most durable of all wood 

 when immersed in water ; it is therefore used in building 

 wharfs. Hemlock generally grows on undulating land, 

 mixed up with birch, beech, maple, and other hard wood ; 

 and the settler looks upon it as an indication of good soil. 

 There are two species of spruce in the Canadian forest, 

 the white spruce (A. alba) and the black (A. nigra) ; also 

 a variety of the latter, called by the Indians "skunk 

 spruce," from its smell. The spruce is excellent wood, 

 and grows in immense quantities all over Canada. It 

 constitutes the main article of lumber in certain districts 

 out of which the pine has all been culled. The lumberers 

 raft it down to the sawmills in logs, where it is manu- 

 factured into deals, boards, clap-boards for walls of houses, 

 laths, and twenty other things. The black spruce grows 

 on rough and rocky places, and is in general a mark of 

 bad or indifferent land ; the white spruce grows mixed up 

 with hardwood and pine on a better description of land. 

 The bark of the white spruce can be peeled off in the 

 month of June with the greatest ease, and is used by 

 the back settlers for roofing barns and shanties. The 

 sportsman camping out in the summer knows the value 

 of this bark in wet weather. From the young twigs of 

 the black spruce spruce-beer is made, an abominable 

 concoction, said however to be wholesome. The roots of 

 this species are tough and supple ; they make excellent 

 ties, and are used by the Indians for sewing their bark 

 canoes. Spruce sparks and crackles too much for fire- 

 wood, but it answers very well in close stoves. 



The tamarac, called also hachmatac and juniper 



