APRIL. 71 



kettle is suspended over the fire from the short arm of a long 

 lever, which works around a pivot on some stump near : by 

 pushing the long arai of this lever, a man can instantly 

 swing the kettle off the fire with all ease ; and these posts 

 and cross-beam are not needed. But we are a very unim- 

 proving people. See the elegance of our utensils ! Here is a 

 tin basin with a long crooked stick for a handle ; this is to 

 bale the sap or sugar in or out ; here is a tin skimmer, with 

 a similar handle, to scum the liquor j a shovel made with 

 the axe, out of a piece of board ; and a poker, made of a beech 

 sapling. We take as many of our materials as we can, you 

 see, from the surrounding woods, perhaps in compliment to 

 the presiding dryads and satyrs of the place ; or, perhaps, 

 — from necessity. 



C — What is in the pot now ? 



F. — It was filled this morning with sap out of the holder, 

 that large cask that stands beside you, and as the watery 

 part has been evaporated, its place has been supplied by re- 

 peated fillings-up from the same reservoir. If you taste 

 it, you will find that it has become very sweet and much 

 thicker than the sap. A piece of fat pork thrown in, has 

 the effect of refining it, by making all extraneous matters rise 

 in a thick coat of scum, which is carefully taken off from 

 time to time as it accumulates. When it has boiled to a 

 considerable consistence, about that of oil, it is baled out 

 into this other cask, and is called syrup. The first part of 

 the process, the first boiling, is then complete. 



C — What more remains to be done ? 



F. — The same process is repeated, when they have sap 

 enough ; and the syrup is added to what is already in the 

 cask, until there is a sufficiency collected to " sugar off," as 

 it is called ; that is, to complete the process, by boiling the 

 syrup over again, until it will granulate or crystallize. This 



