88 TKEES 



The Canoe Birch 



Betula papyrifera, Marsh. 



The canoe birch or paper birch is the noblest member of 

 the family. (See cover of book.) Ernest Thompson 

 Seton calls it "The White Queen of the Woods— the 

 source of food, drink, transport, and lodging to those who 

 dwell in the forest — the most bountiful provider of all the 

 trees." Then he enumerates the sweet syrup yielded by 

 its sap; the meal made by drying and grinding the inner 

 bark; the buds and catkins upon v/hich the partridge feeds; 

 and the outer bark, which is its best gift to primitive 

 man. 



"The broad sheets of this vegetable rawhide, ripped off 

 when the weather is warm, and especially when the sap is 

 moving, are tough, light, strong, pliant, absolutely water- 

 proof, almost imperishable in the weather; free from in- 

 sects, assailable only by fire. It roofs the settler's shack 

 and the forest Indian's wigwam. It supplies cups, pails, 

 pots, pans, spoons, boxes; under its protecting power the 

 matches are safe and dry; split very thin, as is easily done, 

 it is the WTiting paper of the woods, flat, light, smooth, 

 waterproof, tinted, and scented; but the crowning glory of 

 the birch is this — it furnishes the indispensable substance 

 for the bark canoe, whose making is the highest industrial 

 exploit of the Indian life." 



From the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from our northern 

 tier of states to the arctic seas, woodsmen, red and white, 

 have found this white-barked tree ready to their hand, 

 their sure defense against death by cold and by starvation. 

 The weather is never so wet but that shreds of birch bark 



