328 THE TRADE IN LOGWOOD. 



The parched Indian rice is heated in pots over a slow fire, till it bursts 

 and shows the white floury part within the dark skin. This sort is 

 eaten by the Indians in their soups and stews, which are chiefly made 

 of game, venison, and wild fowl ; and often also dry by handfuls, when 

 on journeys, as the parched corn of the Israelites. The wild rice is sold 

 in the stores of Canada at 10s. a bushel. The Indians sow it up in mats 

 or coarse birch baskets to keep it. 



The gathering of wild rice is rarely practised by the settlers, whose 

 time can be more profitably employed on their farms ; but we have 

 thought the description of harvesting it might not be devoid of interest, 

 since in men, who have gone exploring or " lumbering" on the shores of 

 lonely lakes and rivers, far from the haunts of civilised man, have some- 

 times been reduced to worse shifts than gathering wild rice to supply 

 their wants. 



THE TRADE IN LOGWOOD. 



BY THE EDITOR. 



Of the annual imports of logwood — some 41,000 tons per annum 

 of the value of 256,000Z. — the largest cmantity, more than one-third, 

 now comes from the West India Islands, and about 6,000 tons each 

 from Hayti, from Belize, and from the Northern Atlantic American 

 ports. The tree which supplies it, the Hcematoxylon Campeachianum 

 reaches fifty feet in height. The wood is hard and dense, having 

 a greater specific gravity than water. The pinnate leaves are hand- 

 some, of a fine dark glossy green colour ; the flowers are pea-shaped 

 in fine yellow racemes. The trunk is cut into large logs ; the 

 bark and alburnum, or white wood is chopped off; the dark-red 

 inner wood being the only valuable portion. The value is in proportion 

 to the size "of the logs, the largest being the most prized : but it is 

 chiefly imported in short lengths. We chip or grind, and pack it in casks 

 and bags ready for the dyers', hatters', and calico printers' use, who esteem 

 it as affording the most durable, deep red and black dyes ; but before 

 doing so it is generally conveyed in the state as imported to the manu- 

 facturing towns, where it is frequently deposited and stacked on wharves 

 for a great length of time before being ground or used. The wood being 

 very haid, of a fine compact grain, is almost indestructible by the 

 atmospheric influence. It was first introduced into England in the 

 reign of Elizabeth, but as it afforded to the unskilful dyers of her time 

 a fugitive colour it was not only prohibited from being used, under 

 severe penalties, but was ordered to be burned wheresoever found, by a 



