INDIAN BIRCH BARK CANOES. 161 



time occupied the country, used to skim the surface of 

 all these waters in their birch bark canoes, whose model 

 continues, even to our own day, to be regarded as 

 the perfection of combined strength, lightness, and grace 

 of construction. 



These canoes are manufactured from the bark of a 

 noble species of birch, peculiar to the American forests, 

 known as the " canoe " or " paper " birch (Betula 

 Papyracea>i, which grows to an immense size, and it is 

 said " attains to the height of 70 feet, and is often three 

 feet in diameter." * Mr. James Brown, a high authority 

 on questions of forestry, states that specimens occasionally 

 grow to dimensions considerably greater than the above, 

 which may be regarded as the more usual size of fine 

 trees of this description of birch ; for he states that he 

 has found specimens of the canoe birch in Canada, 

 which are "not infrequently from 90 to 100 feet in 

 height, with a diameter exceeding 4 feet 6 inches." f 

 But in general, he admits, it does not exceed the 

 dimensions given by Captain Levinge. Mr. Brown 

 also states that the canoe birch differs from the common 

 birch, in that it never grows on soils of a wet or sour 

 character, such as the other varieties are usually 

 found on, but upon land of an altogether better and 

 drier description, in which localities alone it is capable 

 of flourishing. 



To the Indian, the explorer, and the settler, the 

 birch tree stands pre-eminent, if not as the most valuable, 

 at any rate as one of the most valuable of all trees 



* Echoes from the Back-woods, by Captain R. G. A. Levinge, 1849, 

 vol. i., p. 116. 



f The Forester, by James Brown, 4th edit., London, 1871, p. 239. 

 Ibid., p. 239. 



VOL. II. II 



