384 



THE SPRUCE FIR. 



forest in Sweden. We have seen trees of all ages 

 grouped and distributed in innumerable ways, — 

 here weighed down with snow, and there boldly 

 shooting through it their round pyramidal heads. 

 When a sudden thaw takes place in spring, the 

 snow and the branches seem all in motion ; some 

 branches, being relieved of their load of snow, are 

 rising up in consequence of their elasticity ; and 

 others, from the snow falling on them from 

 branches still higher up the tree, are bending, and 

 perhaps breaking, under the additional weight." 



The Spruce Fir, besides furnishing large quan- 

 tities of valuable timber, produces the substance 

 known by the name of Burgundy pitch. To pro- 

 duce this resin, the collector, in the spring, before 

 the sap begins to ascend, cuts off a long vertical 

 strip of bark from the south side of the tree, as 

 deep as the soft wood, but without wounding it. 

 The sap exudes very slowly from between the 

 bark and the wood, and hardens on exposure to 

 the air. In about three or four months afterwards, 

 the groove is found filled with dry resin, which is 

 then collected and purified by being melted in 

 boiling water. 



The uses of deal are too numerous and well 

 known to be noticed here ; the bark is used in 

 tanning. In Sweden and Norway the inner bark 

 is made into baskets ; and the canoes, which are 

 made of the timber of the large trees, and which 

 are so light that they may be carried on a man's 

 shoulders when the navigation is interrupted by a 

 rapid or cascade, have their planks fastened to- 

 gether by strings made of the roots, so that not a 

 single nail is used in their construction. The 

 long and slender roots are chosen for this pur- 



