APRIL 205 



of different colors ; divided into very tliin sheets, it 

 forms a substitute for paper, and placed between the 

 soles of the shoes, and in the crown of the hat, it is a 

 defence against humidity. But the most important pur- 

 poses to which it is applied, and one in w^hich it is re- 

 placed by the bark of no other tree, is the construction 

 of canoes. To procure proper pieces, the largest and 

 smoothest trunks are selected. In the spring two cir- 

 cular incisions are made several feet apart, and two 

 longitudinal ones on opposite -sides of the tree, after 

 which, by introducing a wooden wedge, the bark is 

 easily detached. These plates are usually ten or twelve 

 feet long, and two feet nine inches broad. To form the 

 canoe, they are stitched together with fibrous roots of 

 the white spruce, about the size of a quill, which are 

 deprived of the bark, split, and suppled in water. The 

 seams are coated with resin of the balm of Gilead. 

 Great use is made of these canoes by the savages and 

 the French Canadians in their long journeys into the 

 interior of the country ; they are very light and are 

 easily transported from one lake or river to another, 

 which is called the portage. A canoe, calculated for 

 four persons with their baggage, weighs from forty to 

 fifty pounds. Some of them are made to carry fifteen 

 passengers." 



Birch bark was also used for '• rind tents "' in the settle- 

 ment of the Hudson Bay Company. These were sewed 

 together with the white spruce roots, and were used 

 the whole year round, requiring but a short time — a 

 half hour — to pitch, and being an efficient protection 

 against both the cold and the sun. 



The black birch, often called cherry birch, may be 

 immediately recognized by the birchlike appearance of 



