VOL. XXXII.

No. 5.

HE American elms of our intervales, that that tower above other deciduous growth, are the most majestic of New Hampshire trees. Many of the streets of the older towns are arched with the living green of their wide spreading branches, and, when one looks down from a height, the abundance of trees below gives to the scene almost the appearance of a forest. Their home, however, is in the lowlands, and they do not form a part of our upland woods. The sugar-maple attains fine development and is very abundant in the highlands, and with the exception of the white pine it is our most valuable tree, but it gives a park-like, orderly aspect to the woods and villages, and does not remind one of the natural, primeval woods. The wide-spreading branches of the white pines that once raised their dark green crowns above the early forests have nearly disappeared before the lumberman's axe, and this beautiful feature of our sylvan scenery is mainly confined to the head waters of the larger streams. The shaggy forms of northern hemlocks upon the highlands, that defy the blasts of

winter, have something of a kingly individuality, like the Norsemen of old, but they are more heroic than beautiful. The canoe or paper birch (Betula Papyrifera), however, with its gleaming white trunk and light green foliage, is the most picturesque tree of our northern forests—the poet of the trees.

This birch attains a maximum height of eighty feet, with trunk diameter of three feet. It is found on richly wooded slopes, along the banks of streams and the shores of our more secluded ponds, and is most abundant on the highlands. This hardy tree braves the cold heights of our loftiest New Hampshire mountains, and only ceases to exist when the Alpine area of Mt. Washington is reached. There, above the limit of dwarf firs and spruces, it grows with the Lapland rhododendron, Labrador tea, and Alpine willows, all dwarfed to the height of a few inches above the ground, and spreads out over the surface of the rocks to catch the warmth and to escape the furious blasts and crushing snows of winter. The lines of the water courses down from these mountain heights can be traced from a distance by the lighter

green foliage of the birches contrasting with the dark green of the firs and spruces.

The canoe or paper birch was one of God's best gifts to the Indians. It furnished material for the canoes, which were made with frames of cedar, the seams being sewed by the aid of an awl made from the tail of the shell fish 'horse shoe" or one made from a deer's bone, with fibre split from black spruce roots used as a coarse thread. On the lakes and streams they were, like the eagle's flight in the clear air above, an emblem of primitive woodland freedom, and suggested the grace and alertness of the Indian's life. The can vas canoe has, however, taken the place of the canoe made from birch bark, and now only a bark canoe

here and there, drawn up on the bank near an Indian settlement, reminds one by its picturesque ruin that one of their most skillful native industries has passed away. The birch also furnished coverings for the wigwams, which were the Indian's favorite summer homes, and the low arched and also conical roofs of poles, with the exterior white covering and rich tints of the inner side of the bark were exceedingly picturesque. From the birch bark, also, a vessel in which to boil water was made by turning up the edges of a thin strip of bark and fastening them together by a small stick. This vessel could only be used when the fire was burned down to coals so that the blaze could not run up to the top of the kettle and burn off the fasten

ings. The Indians made gashes with their stone axes in the trunks of the canoe birches, as well as the sugar maples, and the sap furnished a pleasant drink and was also boiled

into syrup.

The New England pioneers made use of the bark to shingle their first rude cabins, and sometimes it was also used as a shutter for the small windows. At the present time the Indians of Maine have camps at many of the mountain and seashore resorts and sell a variety of souvenirs, such as fancy baskets, toy canoes, photograph frames, etc., made from the bark of the paper birch.

The bark of the canoe or paper birch can be easily separated into thin leaves, and so varied are the tints that it is almost impossible to find two leaves of exactly the same shade. Very accurate maps drawn on birch bark served to guide the first traders and missionaries, and

A Woodland Byway.

Hillside Birches.

some of these primitive maps are still preserved in the archives of the Hudson Bay Company at Montreal. At the present time many booklets of woodland poetry are printed on the natural sheets, but they do not always take a clear impression of the types on account of the unequal thickness, and so paper made to imitate the natural bark is often used. The thin inner bark is sometimes used as stationery, as the following anecdote will illustrate. A bank in the uplands of New Hampshire has a check drawn by Joseph Jefferson for two dollars that will never be presented for payment. The veteran actor, after a long tramp down a mountain brook, came out on a crossroad just as a farm team was passing in the opposite direction from that in which he wished to go. Here was an opportunity to hire a team to drive to the main road in season to take the stage to his hotel. When Mr. Jeffer

Pyrogravure on Birch Bark.

son arrived at the end of the fourmile drive and attempted to pay the farmer, he discovered that he did not have the two dollars; his pocket book had been left at the hotel and not a scrap of paper could be found. With characteristic alertness the veteran actor took out his knife, cut a piece of birch bark from one of the trees near by, and wrote a check for the amount. When the farmer made his customary trip to the creamery the next morning the unique check was taken to the bank and immediately cashed. The bank had the birch bark check framed, and it hangs on the wall of the president's private office as an interesting souvenir of the famous actor.

The manufacture of articles from the wood of the paper birch is an important industry in northern New England. Spools, shoe pegs, skewers, and toothpicks are turned out by the hundreds of millions and the spools are shipped to all parts of the world. Checkers, chessmen, wooden sleds, bicycle stands, and all sorts of wooden toys and trinkets are made from the tough, close-grained wood. The paper birch also makes an excellent fire wood, if cured under cover,

and the white, bark-covered sticks are a picturesque wood for the fire-place.

The paper birch is liable to attack by forest fires. A campfire may be left to burn out without any effort being made to extinguish it. A breeze springing up may scatter the embers into the tinder-like moss. Fanned by the increasing wind, the fire slowly eats its way through the moss and leaves to the trunk of a paper birch near by and runs up the inflammable bark. Then, catching in the branches of coniferous trees, the fire streams high above the tops and is carried by the gale across valuable tracts of woodland. The paper birch seldom escapes the ravages of the fire, although some of the hard-wood trees may not be damaged severely. Burned districts in the highlands are favorable localities for the paper birch, and in time they may become the principal growth.

The severe sleet storms that occur every few years in the highlands are very destructive to groves of young birches. Sometimes the rain falls steadily for hours, freezing on every