Popular Adventure Tales

by Mayne Reid

  CHAPTER X.

  THREE CURIOUS TREES.

  Next morning they were awake at an early hour. There was still enough ofthe tongues and grouse left, along with some ribs of the antelope, tobreakfast the party; and then all four set out to bring the flesh ofBasil's buffaloes into camp. This they accomplished, after makingseveral journeys. It was their intention to dry the meat over the fire,so that it might keep for future use. For this purpose the flesh wasremoved from the bones, and after being cut into thin slices and strips,was hung up on poles at some distance from the blaze. Nothing more couldbe done, but wait until it became sufficiently parched by the heat.

  While this process was going on our voyageurs collected around the fire,and entered into a consultation about what was best to be done. At firstthey thought of going back to the Red River settlement, and obtaininganother canoe, as well as a fresh stock of provisions and implements.But they all believed that getting back would be a toilsome anddifficult matter. There was a large lake and several extensive marsheson the route, and these would have to be got round, making the journey avery long one indeed. It would take them days to perform it on foot, andnothing is more discouraging on a journey than to be forced by someaccident to what is called "taking the back-track."

  All of them acknowledged this, but what else could they do? It is truethere was a post of the Hudson's Bay Company at the northern end of LakeWinnipeg. This post was called Norway House. How were they to reach thatafoot? To walk around the borders of the lake would be a distance ofmore than four hundred miles. There would be numerous rivers to cross,as well as swamps and pathless forests to be threaded. Such a journeywould occupy a month or more, and at Norway House they would still be asit were only at the beginning of the great journey on which they had setout. Moreover, Norway House lay entirely out of their way. CumberlandHouse--another trading-post upon the River Saskatchewan--was the nextpoint where they had intended to rest themselves, after leaving the RedRiver settlements. To reach Cumberland House _afoot_ would be equallydifficult, as it, too, lay at the distance of hundreds of miles, withlakes, and rivers, and marshes, intervening. What, then, could they do?

  "Let us _not_ go back," cried Francois, ever ready with a bold advice:"let us make a boat, and keep on, say I."

  "Ha! Francois," rejoined Basil, "it's easy to say 'make a boat;' how isthat to be done, I pray?"

  "Why, what's to hinder us to hew a log, and make a dug-out? We havestill got the axe, and two hatchets left."

  Norman asked what Francois meant by a dug-out. The phrase was new tohim.

  "A canoe," replied Francois, "hollowed out of a tree. They are sometimescalled 'dug-outs' on the Mississippi, especially when they are roughlymade. One of them, I think, would carry all four of us well enough.Don't you think so, Luce?"

  "Why, yes," answered the student; "a large one might: but I fear thereare no trees about here of sufficient size. We are not among the greattimber of the Mississippi bottom, you must remember."

  "How large a tree would it require?" asked Norman, who knew but littleof this kind of craft.

  "Three feet in diameter, at least," replied Lucien; "and it should be ofthat thickness for a length of nearly twenty feet. A less one would notcarry four of us."

  "Then I am sure enough," responded Norman, "that we won't find suchtimber here. I have seen no tree of that size either yesterday, or whilewe were out this morning."

  "Nor I," added Basil.

  "I don't believe there's one," said Lucien.

  "If we were in Louisiana," rejoined Francois, "I could find fiftycanoe-trees by walking as many yards. Why I never saw such insignificanttimber as this here."

  "You'll see smaller timber than this Cousin Frank, before we reach theend of our voyage."

  This remark was made by Norman, who knew that, as they proceedednorthward, the trees would be found decreasing in size until they wouldappear like garden shrubbery.

  "But come," continued he, "if we can't build a craft to carry us from_one_ tree, perhaps we can do it out of _three_."

  "With three!" echoed Francois. "I should like to see a canoe made fromthree trees! Is it a raft you mean, Cousin Norman?"

  "No," responded the other; "a canoe, and one that will serve us for therest of our voyage."

  All three--Basil, Lucien, and Francois--looked to their cousin for anexplanation.

  "You would rather not go back up the river?" he inquired, glancing fromone to the other.

  "We wish to go on--all of us," answered Basil, speaking for his brothersas well.

  "Very well," assented the young fur-trader; "I think it is better as youwish it. Out of these trees I can build a boat that will carry us. Itwill take us some days to do it, and some time to find the timber, but Iam tolerably certain it is to be found in these woods. To do the jobproperly I want three kinds; two of them I can see from where I sit; thethird I expect will be got in the hills we saw this morning."

  As Norman spoke he pointed to two trees that grew among many others notfar from the spot. These trees were of very different kinds, as waseasily told by their leaves and bark. The nearer and more conspicuous ofthem at once excited the curiosity of the three Southerners. Lucienrecognised it from its botanical description. Even Basil and Francois,though they had never seen it, as it is not to be found in the hot climeof Louisiana, knew it from the accounts given of it by travellers. Thetree was the celebrated "canoe-birch," or as Lucien named it,"paper-birch," celebrated as the tree out of whose bark those beautifulcanoes are made that carry thousands of Indians over the interior lakesand rivers of North America; out of whose bark whole tribes of thesepeople fashion their bowls, their pails, and their baskets; with whichthey cover their tents, and from which they even make their soup-kettlesand boiling-pots! This, then, was the canoe birch-tree, so much talkedof, and so valuable to the poor Indians who inhabit the cold regionswhere it grows.

  Our young Southerners contemplated the tree with feelings of interestand curiosity. They saw that it was about sixty feet high, and somewhatmore than a foot in diameter. Its leaves were nearly cordate, orheart-shaped, and of a very dark-green colour; but that which renderedit most conspicuous among the other trees of the forest was the shiningwhite or silver-coloured bark that covered its trunk, and its numerousslender branches. This bark is only white externally. When you have cutthrough the epidermis you find it of a reddish tinge, very thick, andcapable of being divided into several layers. The wood of the tree makesexcellent fuel, and is also often used for articles of furniture. It hasa close, shining grain, and is strong enough for ordinary implements;but if exposed to the weather will decay rapidly.

  The "canoe-birch" is not the only species of these trees found in NorthAmerica. The genus _Betula_ (so called from the Celtic word _batu_,which means birch) has at least half-a-dozen other known representativesin these parts. There is the "white birch," a worthless tree of sometwenty feet in height, and less than six inches diameter. The bark ofthis species is useless, and its wood, which is soft and white, is unfiteven for fuel. It grows, however, in the poorest soil. Next there is aspecies called the "cherry-birch," so named from the resemblance of itsbark to the common cherry-tree. It is also called "sweet birch," becauseits young twigs, when crushed, give out a pleasant aromatic odour.Sometimes the name of "black birch," is given to this species. It is atree of fifty or sixty feet in height, and its wood is much used incabinet-work, as it is close-grained, of a beautiful reddish colour, andsusceptible of a high polish.

  The information regarding the birches of America was given by Lucien tohis brothers, not at that time, but shortly afterward, when the threewere engaged in felling one of these trees. Just then other mattersoccupied them, and they had only glanced, first at the canoe-birch andthen at the other tree which Norman had pointed out. The latter was of adifferent genus. It belonged to the order _Coniferae_, or cone-bearingtrees, as was evident from the cone-shaped fruits that hung upon itsbranches, as well as from its needle-like evergreen leaves.

  The cone-b
earing trees of America are divided by botanists into threegreat sub-orders--the _Pines_, the _Cypresses_ and the _Yews_. Each ofthese includes several genera. By the "pine tribe" is meant all thosetrees known commonly by the names pine, spruce, fir, and larch: whilethe _Cupressinae_, or cypress tribe, are the cypress proper, the cedars,the arbor-vitae, and the junipers. The yew tribe has fewer genera orspecies; but the trees in America known as yews and hemlocks--of whichthere are several varieties--belong to it.

  The pines cannot be termed trees of the tropics, yet do they grow insouthern and warm countries. In the Carolinas, tar and turpentine,products of the pine, are two staple articles of exportation; and evenunder the equator itself, the high mountains are covered withpine-forests. But the pine is more especially the tree of a northern_sylva_. As you approach the Arctic circle, it becomes thecharacteristic tree. Then it appears in extensive forests, lending theirpicturesque shelter to the snowy desolation of the earth. One species ofpine is the very last tree that disappears as the traveller, inapproaching the pole, takes his leave of the limits of vegetation. Thisspecies is the "white spruce" the very one which, along with thebirch-tree, had been pointed out by Norman to his companions.

  It was a tree not over thirty or forty feet high, with a trunk of lessthan a foot in thickness, and of a brownish colour. Its leaves or"needles" were about an inch in length, very slender and acute, and of abluish green tint. The cones upon it, which at that season were youngwere of a pale green. When ripe, however, they become rusty-brown, andare nearly two inches in length.

  What use Norman would make of this tree in building his canoe, neitherBasil nor Francois knew. Lucien only guessed at it. Francois asked thequestion, by saying that he supposed the "timbers" were to come out ofit.

  "No," said Norman, "for that I want still another sort. If I can't findthat sort, however, I can manage to do without it, but not so well."

  "What other sort?" demanded Francois.

  "I want some cedar-wood," replied the other.

  "Ah! that's for the timbers," said Francois; "I am sure of it. Thecedar-wood is lighter than any other, and, I dare say, would answeradmirably for ribs and other timbers."

  "You are right this time, Frank--it is considered the best for thatpurpose."

  "You think there are cedar-trees on the hills we saw this morning?" saidFrancois, addressing his Canadian cousin.

  "I think so. I noticed something like them."

  "And I, too, observed a dark foliage," said Lucien, "which looked likethe cedar. If anywhere in this neighbourhood, we shall find them there.They usually grow upon rocky, sterile hills, such as those appear tobe--that is their proper situation."

  "The question," remarked Basil, "ought to be settled at once. We havemade up our mind to the building of a canoe, and I think we should loseno time in getting ready the materials. Suppose we all set out for thehills."

  "Agreed--agreed!" shouted the others with one voice; and thenshouldering their guns, and taking the axe along, all four set out forthe hills. On reaching these, the object of their search was at oncediscovered. The tops of all the hills--dry, barren ridges theywere--were covered with a thick grove of the red cedar. The trees wereeasily distinguished by the numerous branches spreading horizontally,and thickly covered with short dark green needles, giving them thatsombre, shady appearance, that makes them the favourite haunt of manyspecies of owls. Their beautiful reddish wood was well known to all theparty, as it is to almost every one in the civilized world. Everybodywho has seen or used a black-lead pencil must know what the wood of thered cedar is like--for it is in this the black-lead is usually incased.In all parts of America, where this tree grows in plenty, it is employedfor posts and fence-rails, as it is one of the most durable woods inexistence. It is a great favourite also for kindling fires, as itcatches quickly, and blazes up in a few seconds, so as to ignite theheavier logs of other timbers, such as the oak and the pine.

  "Now," said Norman, after examining a few of the cedar-trees, "we havehere all that's wanted to make our canoe. We need lose no more time, butgo to work at once."

  "Very well," replied the three brothers, "we are ready to assistyou,--tell us what to do."

  "In the first place," said the other, "I think we had better change ourcamp to this spot, as I see all the different kinds of trees here, andmuch better ones than those near the river. There," continued he,pointing to a piece of moist ground in the valley,--"there are somesplendid birches, and there beside them is plenty of the _epinette_" (sothe voyageurs term the white spruce). "It will save us many journeys ifwe go back and bring our meat to this place at once."

  To this they all of course agreed, and started back to their first camp.They soon returned with the meat and other things, and having chosen aclean spot under a large-spreading cedar-tree, they kindled a new fireand made their camp by it--that is, they strung up the provisions, hungtheir horns and pouches upon the branches around, and rested their gunsagainst the trees. They had no tent to pitch, but that is not necessaryto constitute a camp. In the phraseology of the American hunter,wherever you kindle your fire or spend the night is a "camp."