262 November 1748* 



elfe; for if they be employed as ports, or poles in 

 the ground, they .are in a fhort time rendered 

 ufelefs by rotting: as foon as they are cut down 

 the worms are very greedy of them j they foon 

 cat through the wood, and only a few weeks af- 

 ter it is cut down; however it is made ufe of as 

 fuel, where no other wood is to be got, in feve- 

 'ral places they make charcoal of it, as 1 intend 

 to mention in the fequel. There is another thing 

 which defcrves notice, in regard to thefe trees, 

 and which feveral people befides myfelf have ex- 

 perienced. In the great heat of the furnmer, the 

 cattle like to ftand in the made of thefe trees, 

 preferably to that of the oak, hiccory, walnut, 

 water-beech, and other trees of this kind, whofe 

 foliage is very thick; and when the cattle find 

 the latter with the former, they always, choofe 

 to (land under the firs and pines, though the 

 other trees with annual deciduous leaves could 

 afford a better made : and if there be but a fingle 

 pine in a wood, as many cattle from the herd as 

 can fland under it, throng to it. Some people 

 would infer from hence, that the refinous exha- 

 lations of thefe trees, were beneficial to the cat- 

 tle, and which made them more inclined to be 

 near firs and pines, than any other trees. 



THE Spoon tree, which never grows to a great 

 height, we faw this day in feveral places. The 

 'Swedes here have called it thus, becaufe the /- 

 dians, who formely lived in thefe provinces, ufed 

 to make their fpoons and trowels of the wood of 

 this tree. In my cabinet of natural curionties, 

 I have a fpoon made of this wood by an Indian, 

 who has killed many flags and other animals on 

 5 the 



