THEIR PROPERTIES, &C. 8l 



other parts of the country, in machinery, turnery, 

 wheel-work, and for lafts, pattens, wooden fhoes, 

 and fuch purpofes. It is likewife much ufed in 

 coaleries, for props, and waggon-road fleepers. 

 It is an excellent fuel, burning very clear, and emit- 

 ting lefs finoke than mod other woods. In the 

 fmoking of herrings, in particular, Birch is pre- 

 ferred to all other kinds of wood. 



The bark of the Birch is very aftringent, and 

 affords a tan perhaps inferior only to that of the 

 oak ; with which it is ufed in mixture, in many 

 parts of the country. A vinous liquor, or juice ? 

 is extracted from it, called birch-wine ; it is drawn 

 off by tapping the trees in fpring, or early in fum- 

 mer. When properly manufactured, it makes a 

 cooling, agreeable drink. PALLAS, in his Flora 

 Roffica,-fays, that the well known and highly 

 efteemed Ruffian leather owes its agreeable fmell 

 to being anointed with an oil extracted from the 

 Birch. He thus defcribes the procefs. 



" The oil is prepared from the white bark^ 

 either taken from the live tree, or collected from 

 thofe that are putrid in the woods. It is beft made 

 from the latter ; becaufe by the putrefaction it is 

 freed from the inner bark ; and the external white 

 bark remains uncorrupted for ages, as appears by 

 the old burial-places at Janifea, and the vaults of 

 the very antient caftle of Mofcow, which I obferv- 

 ed were covered with birch bark. The bark is 

 F gathered 



