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does in the animal. Ot' its wood they form those light, 
canoes, which answer every purpose of their limited 
navigation; its bark furnishes them with an almost 
impenetrable roof for their huts, and is ingeniously 
converted into various articles of clothing, whilst its 
inner coat, dried and ground, is a substitute for flour in 
times of scarcity; its sap affords them a refreshing 
beverage: its branches yield them fuel; and its leaves 
“ form a soft elastic couch for the cradle of infancy.” 
Our earlier annals inform us that the birch supplied 
our ancestors with implements both for war and the 
chace: and when these feats were over, furnished various 
vessels, cups, bowls, &c., for their unrefined but hos¬ 
pitable entertainments. 
Its bark was made use of by the ancients for tablets; 
and it is said some of the books which Numa composed 
and wrote on this material, were found in perfect pre¬ 
servation when his tomb was opened, after a lapse of 
four hundred years. 
The fasces of the Roman lictors too were made ot 
this tree, the use of which was to clear the way for the 
magistrates, and to beat such of the crowd as caused 
any obstruction to their progress. Even in modern 
days it seems to plead for the continuance of this ancient 
prerogative, being still used as an instrument of punish- 
