The Maine birch is
turned to so many accounts that it may well be called the palm of this
region. Uncle Nathan, our guide, said it was made especially for the
camper-out; yes, and for the wood-man and frontiersman generally.
It is a magazine, a furnishing store set up in the wilderness, whose
goods are free to every comer. The whole equipment of the camp lies
folded in it, and comes forth at the beck of the woodman's axe; tent,
waterproof roof, boat, camp utensils, buckets, cups, plates, spoons,
napkins, table cloths, paper for letters or your journal, torches,
candles, kindling-wood, and fuel. The canoe-birch yields you its
vestments with the utmost liberality. Ask for its coat, and it gives
you its waistcoat also. Its bark seems wrapped about it layer upon
layer, and comes off with great ease. We saw many rude structures and
cabins shingled and sided with it, and haystacks capped with it.
Near a maple-sugar camp there was a large pile of birch-bark
sap-buckets,--each bucket made of a piece of bark about a yard square,
folded up as the tinman folds up a sheet of tin to make a square
vessel, the corners bent around against the sides and held by a wooden
pin.
Pages:
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213