404 AN ACCOUNT OF THE BOTANICAL AND MINERAL PRODUCTS 



more than 100 millions of seed sown, sufficient to cover 20,000 hectares of 

 land, or nearly 50,000 acres. 



It may finally be observed that the method invented by Mme. de Cor- 

 nelian and M. Forgemol for winding off the raw silk from the cocoons con- 

 siderably enhances the value of Ailantine. 



Along the barren sea-coasts of England, the A. glandulosa would flourish 

 extremely well. The labour of children could also be advantageously 

 directed to this new commercial project ; and at a moment like the present, 

 when a single unforeseen event, a single emergency, has arrested the pros- 

 perous career of a mighty industry, and plunged into distress those opera- 

 tives dependent upon it, the readers of the Technologist will see at once 

 how worthy an object of development in England is this Ailantine economy. 

 If the Chinese can clothe themselves at such a minimum price with the 

 products of this silkworm, it is certainly worth an effort to endeavour to 

 give the suffering poor of England the opportunity of bettering their con- 

 dition, when the result is so clear, and the manipulation so easy and inex- 

 pensive. The results of the experiments of G. Mason, Esq., of Hants, whose 

 small collection of cocoons and silk from worms fed on the Morus alba, 

 which is exhibited in the Eastern Annexe, prove that something might even 

 be beneficially done in this direction. But the Ailanthus would grow in a 

 soil in which the white mulberry could not flourish ; and the worms which 

 feed upon it, according to all the experiments of M. Guerin-Meneville, are 

 so hardy, that they have nothing to fear from the sudden changes, and the 

 ungeniality of our English climate. 



AN ACCOUNT OF THE BOTANICAL AND MINEEAL PRODUCTS 



USEFUL TO THE CHIPEWYAN TRIBES OF INDIANS 



INHABITING THE McKENZLE RIVER DISTRICT. 



BY BERNARD R. ROSS. 



Vegetable Products. — A nation of hunters, paying no attention what- 

 ever to agriculture, can enjoy but few of the numerous benefits afforded by 

 the vegetable kingdom to the human race in general. Such is the condition 

 of the Chipewyan tribes of Indians. Though the benefits derived from the 

 mighty forests which fill the McKenzie valley, are but few to their denizens, 

 they may be considered, notwithstanding their fewness, to be of essential, 

 indeed of vital importance to the existence of the aboriginal dwellers in 

 these wilds ; since, without fuel to warm them, and without canoes to 

 migrate, they would soon cease to exist. 



From the vegetable kingdom are derived fuel, canoes, sleds, paddles, 

 snow-shoes, baskets, dyes and food, besides other articles which will be 

 noticed hereafter. Two trees, the canoe birch (Betula papyracea) and the 



