74 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. 



it is not unusual to tap a maple in three or four places at 

 once. Michaux, in his North American Sylva, quotes a 

 curious fact from the Greensburgh Gazette : — " Having in- 

 troduced/' says the writer, " twenty tubes into a sugar- 

 maple, I drew from it, the same day, twenty-three gallons 

 and three quarts of sap, which gave seven and a quarter 

 pounds of sugar ; — thirty-three pounds have been made this 

 season from the same tree, which supposes one hundred gal- 

 lons of sap." No doubt more sap could be collected by this 

 means, but I conceive it must be very detrimental to the 

 health of the tree to extract so large a quantity of its nutri- 

 tive juices. 



C. — How long does the sugar season continue ? 



F. — Generally it lasts about three or four weeks ; but 

 there are many days in this period, during which nothing at 

 all can be done. If the spring is late, it is sometimes neces- 

 sary to close the sugaring prematurely, in order to commence 

 the more important operations of agriculture. As I suppose 

 j^our curiosity is satisfied, we may as well prolong our walk, 

 and see what is going on in the world of Nature, especially 

 as the weather is so inviting. 



C. — I picked up, some days ago, on the bank of the 

 Coatacook, a cocoon, lying on the snow, resembling in texture 

 those of the large Cimbexes, but much larger, nearly of the 

 size of a pigeon's egg, of a dirty flesh-colour. It had evi- 

 dently been spun in the midst of leaves, (I think those of 

 the beech,) for it showed every fibre of them indented, like 

 the impression of a seal, on every part of the surface. It 

 contained nothing but the brown exuvice of a large caterpil- 

 lar, probably of a Saturnia ; for the skins even of green 

 caterpillars become brown when cast. There was an open- 

 ing in the side. 



