handed, is not profitable. A visit to a sugar-camp is an interesting
sight to a stranger--it may, perhaps, be two or three miles through the
woods to where a sufficient number of maple trees may be found close
enough together to render it eligible for sugar-making. All the
different kinds of maple yield a sweet sap, but the "rock maple" is the
species particularly used for sugar, and perhaps a thousand of these
trees near together constitute what is called a _sugar-bush_. Here,
then, a rude hut, but withal picturesque in its appearance, is
erected--it is formed of logs, and covered with broad sheets of birch
bark. For the universal use of this bark I think the Indians must have
given the example. Many beautiful articles are made by them of it, and
to the back settlers it is invaluable. As an inside roofing, it
effectually resists the rain--baskets for gathering the innumerable
tribe of summer berries, and boxes for packing butter are made of
it--calabashes for drinking are formed of it in an instant by the bright
forest stream. Many a New Brunswick belle has worn it for a head-dress
as the dames of more polished lands do frames of French willow; and it
is said the title deeds of many a broad acre in America have been
written on no other parchment than its smooth and vellum-like folds. The
sugar-maker's bark-covered hut contains his bedding and provisions,
consisting of little save the huge round loaf of bread, known as the
"shanty loaf"--his beverage, or substitute for tea, is made of the
leaves of the winter green, or the hemlock boughs which grow beside him,
and his sweetening being handy bye, he wants nothing more. A notch is
cut in the tree, from which the sap flows, and beneath it a piece of
shingle is inserted for a spout to conduct it into troughs, or bark
dishes, placed at the foot of the tree. The cold frosty nights, followed
by warm sunny days, making it run freely, clear as water, and slightly
sweet--from these troughs, or bark dishes, it is collected in pails, by
walking upon the now soft snow, by the aid of snow shoes, and poured