2l8 SHARP EYES 



centuries did these clusters of prophetic seeds rustle 

 against the white bark of the birch, awaiting that ul- 

 timate association of utility in the Indian canoe and 

 paddle? 



Nor is this the only model which the ash bestows. 

 There are half a dozen native species of this tree, each 

 with its especial design of paddle here a long tapering 

 and there a broad and abrupt blade, each, no doubt, the 

 faithful expression of its particular parent tree of the 

 grain and fibre of its being. Confusion, then, to the 

 wood-craftsman who shall violate its precept and shape 

 his red-ash paddle upon the blue-ash model ! 



The birch and the ash are further wedded in the tro- 

 phies of the Indian. We have seen where he obtained 

 his model for the paddle; who knows where he found 

 his hint for the fashioning of the stone arrow-heads 

 which he bound upon the ash shafts of his arrow? 



"The birchen bough drops its bright spoil 

 Like arrow-heads of gold," 



says Bryant, in his poem to " October," in allusion to 

 the autumn foliage of the smaller white birch, whose 

 leaf might well serve as a pattern for many an Indian 

 arrow-head in the archaeological collections. 



