38 FOREST LIFE IN ACADIE. 



abundant. They are crowded together in bushels, and 

 often kill the upper part of the tree and its leading shoot, 

 after which a new leader appears to be elected amongst 

 the nearest tier of branchlets to continue the upward 

 growth. From such a crop the Indians augur an un- 

 usually hard winter, through much the same process of 

 reasoning as that which the English countryman adopts 

 in prophesying a rigorous season from an abundant crop 

 of haws and other autumnal hedge fruits, and generally 

 with about the same chance of fulfilment. 



No less majestic than the coniferae are many of the 

 species of deciduous trees, or " hard woods," which, inter- 

 mingled with the former, impart such a pleasing aspect 

 to the otherwise gloomy fir forests of British North 

 America. Growing, as the firs, with tall straight stems, 

 and struggling upwards for the influence of the sunlight 

 on their lofty foliage, the yellow and black birches aspire 

 to the greatest elevation, attaining a height of seventy or 

 eighty feet. Mixed with these are beeches and elms; 

 and in many districts the country is covered with an 

 almost exclusive growth of the useful rock or sugar- 

 maple. 



In these '' mixed woods," as they are locally termed 

 (indicative, it is said, of a good soil), the prettiest con- 

 trast is afibrded by the pure white stems of the canoe 

 birch (Betula papyracea) against the spruce boughs; and, 

 as these are generally open woods, the latter come sweep- 

 ing down to the ground. The young stems of the yellow 

 birch (B. excelsa) gleam like gilded rods in sunlight; 

 their shining yellow bark looks as though it had been 

 fresh coated with varnish. 



These American birches are a beautiful family of trees, 



