Baskets, boxes and
portfolios are made of it, which are sometimes embroidered with silk of
different colors. Divided into very thin sheets, it forms a substitute
for paper, and placed between the soles of the shoes and in the crown of
the hat it is a defence against dampness. But the most important purpose
to which it is applied, and one in which it is replaced by the bark of
no other tree, is in the construction of canoes. To procure proper
pieces, the largest and smoothest trunks are selected. In the spring two
circular incisions are made, several feet apart, and two longitudinal
ones on opposite sides of the tree; after which, by introducing a wooden
wedge, the bark is easily detached. These plates are usually ten or
twelve feet long and two feet nine inches broad. To form the canoe, they
are stitched together with fibrous roots of the white spruce about the
size of a quill, which are deprived of the bark, split and suppled in
water. The seams are coated with resin of the balm of Gilead.
"'Great use is made of these canoes by the savages and by the French
Canadians in their long journeys into the interior of the country; they
are very light, and are easily transported on the shoulders from one
lake or river to another, which is called the _portage_. A canoe
calculated for four persons, with their baggage, weighs from forty to
fifty pounds; some of them are made to carry fifteen passengers.'
"And now let me show you a picture of the Kentucky pioneer in a
birch-bark canoe.
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