JANUARY. 11 



careful measurement, seventy-six and a half feet : it was in 

 full and vigorous growth, bearing no marks of age : the dia- 

 meter at the base was about eighteen inches. Mr. Bill in- 

 forms me that he has taken two mill-logs of fourteen feet 

 each, fit for sawing, from the butt of a balsam, leaving of 

 course a good length of " top." This must have been a large 

 tree, as the part which would be suitable for boards, could 

 not probably have been more than one-third of the whole, 

 which would make the height eighty-four feet. 



C. The wood of the fir is not often used for sawing, I 

 believe. 



F. No : it does not make good board : the timber, 

 however, is valuable for staves of casks and buckets, and is 

 likewise made into sap-troughs for the sugary. These are 

 very simply manufactured : a log of balsam, two feet long, 

 is split through the centre, the middle of each half is then 

 hollowed out with the axe, and two troughs are finished. 

 The larch or tamarack, though I mentioned it among the 

 evergreens, from its belonging to the same family, is really 

 deciduous ; losing its leaves in October, and resuming 

 them in May. Its wood is very little used j some- 

 times, however, it is hewn for building, or applied to other 

 more trivial purposes : it is close-grained and hard, when 

 seasoned. 



C. We do not use any of these woods for fuel. 



F. When green they burn, notwithstanding their resi- 

 nous nature, with difficulty ; and even when dry, they con- 

 sume so quickly, and so continually throw out lighted frag- 

 ments, "flankers," as they are called, that they are confined 

 to our close stoves. You are aware that the seeds are pro- 

 duced in strobiles, or cones, with imbricated woody scales, 

 which are very closely pressed together, to protect the seeds, 

 one of which is beneath each scale. The strobiles open in 



