Betula 973 



birches, mixed with alders, in the hollow trunks of which the goosander occasionally 

 breeds, and the goldeneye duck may also sometimes do so (Plate 258). 



In no part of Great Britain do the birches assume the same tall, clean 

 growth, or have the same smooth, silvery bark that they do in the forests of Scandi- 

 navia, where pure woods of birch are in some districts very prevalent on the lower 

 land, whilst on the fjelds and mountains it ascends as a scrubby and stunted tree to 

 a greater elevation than any other. Schiibeler^ describes and figures some 

 instances of abnormal growths in birch. His figure 88 shows a fallen trunk from 

 which six healthy-looking young trees are growing in a line, and I have a similar 

 though less striking instance in my own woods. The tallest birch he knew in 

 Norway was at Drobak in Soeterdalen, 30 kilometres south of Christiania, and 

 measured 100 feet by 5 feet 9 inches. Another at Sondre Tveten, in Eidanger, 

 was 79 feet by 11 feet. He figures a remarkable tree at Dunserud, in Eker, 

 which divides into six large trunks, and measures 75 feet in height. Perhaps the 

 most shapely and beautiful of those which he figures, are a tree at the farm of Hohls, 

 in south Trondhjem Amt, measuring 80 feet by 1 1 feet, and another at Gravrok, 

 18 kilometres south of Trondhjem, which measured 80 feet by 16 feet. It seems 

 from these particulars that the birch is the largest deciduous tree in Norway, 

 and attains greater dimensions than in this country ; but though I have spent 

 several months in the forests of north and south Trondhjem in the pursuit of my 

 favourite quarry, the elk, I never saw such trees as those above mentioned, and 

 believe that they all grow in the neighbourhood of farms on unusually fertile soil. 



Timber and Bark 



The timber of the birch can hardly be said to have any general recognised 

 value in England, though in some districts it can be sold to coopers, chairmakers, 

 and clogmakers ; ^ in others, especially since charcoal burning has ceased in most 

 places to be a profitable industry, it can only be looked on as firewood. It is so 

 perishable in contact with the soil, that it is of no use for fencing unless creosoted ; 

 and though in former times,^ according to Sang, the Highlanders made everything 

 that they used of it — rafters, ploughs, harrows, carts, and fences — yet now it would 

 only be used as a makeshift, when other wood could not be had. I have seen large 

 old burry birches, which when cut into boards, were fit for small cabinet panels ; but 

 the wood twists a good deal in drying, and is usually inferior, in grain, texture, 

 colour, and figure to the wood of several species of American birch which can be 

 imported in larger size and at a low price. As underwood it has an uncertain 

 value for making brooms and tool handles and is also used for bobbins. 



In Sweden and Russia the burrs found on the trunks of this tree are converted 

 into many ornamental articles of great beauty. Beer -pots carved out of these 

 burrs, and hooped with wood or silver, are often heirlooms in Scandinavian houses ; 



1 Viridarium Norvegicum, 469. 



2 Birch clog soles are used in the Yorkshire manufacturing towns, whilst in Lancashire alder is preferred. 



' Pennant, Tour in Scotland, 112 (1772), says that wine was extracted from the live tree. 



