The Arbor Vitaes 



furniture and cooperage. Indians use it for totem poles, frame- 

 work of lodges and war canoes. Inner bark furnishes fibre for 

 blankets, ropes and nets; sheets of it thatch their cabins. 



Beside this giant of the Northwest, our Eastern arbor vitae is 

 a pygmy. Solitary, or in small groves, it climbs the mountains 

 to a level more than a mile higher than the rich river bottoms at 

 sea level, where the noblest specimens and the greatest number are 

 assembled. The Indian cuts the biggest specimen he can fmd foi 

 the totem pole that he carves into his family tree. The war canoes 

 are dugouts made of the enormous butts which often measure i 5 

 feet in diameter. Inside of the cabins the great rough-hewn 

 rafters and joist of these primitive dwellings are of this arbor vitze, 

 whose soft wood the crude implements of the tribes can work with 

 comparative ease. The walls that enclose the Indian's house, the 

 blankets that keep him warm, and the ropes, indispensable in 

 fishing, in the harnessing of his dog teams, and in various other 

 enterprises all come from the fibrous inner bark of this tree. 

 Truly it is a "tree of life" to the Alaskan aborigines. 



In cultivation, this species far exceeds the other native in 

 beauty and rapidity of growth. It is coming into popularity in 

 the United States. 



93 



