The Pines 



between. A fire of damp moss is built on top, and the baking 

 takes an hour or more. Then the cakes are laid on slat frames 

 and smoked for a week in a close tent. Now they are ready to 

 put away for future use, or to carry in canoes or on ponies to 

 distant places. 



This "hard bread " is prepared for use by breaking it in 

 pieces and boiling them until soft. The pieces are skimmed out 

 and laid on the snow to cool. " U'likou " fat is used on this 

 strange Alaskan bread as we use butter. 



The Indians make berry baskets out of the bark of the lodge- 

 pole pine. Nuttall, in his extension of Michaux's "Sylva of 

 North America," calls this the twisted-branched pine. I well 

 recall the curious rustic chairs and seats at the Dome Lake Club 

 House in the Big Horn Mountains in Wyoming, made of the 

 extravagantly twisted branches of this tree. They called it 

 "screw pine," I remember. The name contorta may allude to 

 this characteristic, too, although it is not constant in the species. 

 It may rather be regarded as a freak of nature, the cause of which 

 is not understood. However, the hard life of the species on 

 the bleak, wind-swept coast and unprotected sand dunes may 

 easily earn it the name there. 



The Sand Pine {P. clausa, Sarg. ) has a striking habit of 

 swallowing its persistent woody cones by the growth of the 

 stems that bear them. Chopping frequently reveals cones in the 

 solid wood a peculiar kind of modified knot. The tree is unim- 

 portant to the lumber trade, being inferior in quality and scant in 

 quantity. It grows near the coast on either side of northern 

 Florida and west into Alabama. It is used locally as masts for 

 small vessels. 



The Spruce Pine {P. glabra, Walt.) is a close relative of 

 the shortleaf, P. echinata. It grows from South Carolina to 

 Louisiana, in lowlands, solitary or in considerable groves. It 

 attains the height of 120 feet, and spreads over a considerable 

 territory in northwestern Florida. Little use is made of its light, 

 soft wood beyond the local fuel supply. It is known as "cedar 

 pine" in Mississippi. . Its foliage is soft, and bright, dark green, 

 being shed when but two years old. 



The Jersey or Scrub Pine {P. Virginiana, Mill.) is another 

 of those unfortunate trees whose lot seems to be to extort a 

 meagre and miserable living out of worthless soil. A tortuous 



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