BROWSING AND NIBBLING. 101 



would have been too rank and savage for his 

 endurance. : 



The gums and resins of our woods are few. 

 The sweet-gum, or liquid amber, is the only 

 genuinely fine morsel of the sort to be found 

 within the boundaries of the United States. 

 It is a clear amber fluid (flowing from any cut 

 or wound in the tree), which soon hardens into 

 a stiff, translucent yellow wax, possessing a 

 pleasing aromatic taste and odor, strangely 

 fascinating. One does not care to eat it ; but, 

 once a lump of it goes into one's mouth, one 

 chews it until one's jaws are tired. I remem- 

 ber, when I was a very little child, going to a 

 backwoods school in Missouri, where all ihe 

 pupils, both great and small, would chew 

 liquid amber from morning till night; the 

 teacher chewed tobacco. 



Browsing and nibbling has led me to taste 

 the inner bark of nearly every kind of tree 

 growing in American woods. The hickory 

 tree has a sap almost as sweet as that of the 

 maple, but it mingles with the sweet a pun- 

 gency and a slightly acrid element of taste at 

 once pleasing and repellent to the pampered 

 tongue. The oaks have much tannin in their 

 bark, the astringency of which draws one's 

 lips like green persimmons ; but the very 

 innermost part, next the wood, is slightly 

 mucilaginous and faintly sweet. Speaking of 

 persimmons — after a few sharp frosts this 

 wild fruit becomes mellow and rich, but to the 

 last retains a certain drawing quality, a trace 

 of that astringency already mentioned, which 

 keeps it from being a favorite, save with the 

 opossums. 



There is no other woodland influence, how- 



