FIR TREE. 22 ? 
process, it may be necessary to observe, that the 
juice employed for this purpose is not so fluid, so 
transparent, or so fine in other respects, as that 
drawn from the larch and some particular kinds 
of fir. An essential oil is likewise drawn from it 
by distillation, which is knovm in Provence by the 
name of esprit-de-raze ; but it is very inferior to the 
best spirit of turpentine. 
The juice is reduced to a solid state in a copper 
containing about a hogshead, which is placed in a 
furnace built on purpose. In this the liquor is 
boiled for five or six hours, during which time it is 
continually stirred with a great wooden spatula, to 
prevent what settles at the bottom of the copper 
from burning. We are assured, if this precaution 
is neglected, the whole mass is liable to take fire ; 
and when this happens, it is no easy matter to ex- 
tinguish it. While the juice is boiling, they oc- 
casionally pour a small quantity on a slip of wood 
to try its consistence ; and when they find that on 
cooling it crumbles between the fingers, they con- 
sider it as sufficiently reduced, and accordingly re- 
move it from the copper. To accomplish this end, 
they place a trough supported on trestles close to 
the boiler, and strain the resin into it, through 
straw, that it may be purified from the filth and 
dirt with which it is always loaded notwithstanding 
every precaution is generally taken to keep the juice 
as clean as possible. When the mass begins to cool, 
but before it congeals, the people conduct it from 
