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 niust 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 

 your 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 exuviae 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. 



