THE END.
Footnotes
[1]Mass. Reports.
[2]Mass. Reports, Trees, &c.
[3]Emerson's Reports.
[4]Reports on Trees and Shrubs of Massachusetts.
[5]"With very few exceptions, the Pines are monœcious (having the male and female flowers on the same tree). The yellow pollen, which is very abundant, often falls in such quantities upon the branches and leaves below, and upon the neighboring plants, as to cover them; and being as light and fine as dust, it has been sometimes carried by the wind from a forest of Pines and spread upon the ground at a great distance. This affords a probable explanation of the stories which have been told, and which have been regarded with superstition or incredulity, of showers of sulphur."
Lambert, describing the common Scotch Fir, says, "The pollen is sometimes in spring carried away by the wind in such quantities as to alarm the ignorant with the notion of its raining brimstone."
[6]The amount of this wood annually consumed on the rail-roads in Massachusetts is valued at $200,000.
[7]Since writing the above, the following account has come to hand: "The Bald Cypress of Oaxana (Taxodium distichum) and the famous Chestnut of Ætna have been often cited as the giants of the vegetable kingdom. But these sovereigns are dethroned, and put into the second rank by those lately discovered in Tasmania, which leave far behind them those antique monuments of nature. Last week I went to see the two largest trees existing in the world. Both of them are on the border of a small stream tributary to the river of Northwest Bay, in the rear of Mount Wellington. They are of the species named there Swamp Gum; I and my companions (five of us) measured them. One of them had fallen; we therefore easily obtained its dimensions. We found its body two hundred and twenty feet from the ground to the first branch. The top had broken off and partly decayed, but we ascertained the entire height of the tree to have been certainly three hundred feet. We found the diameter of the base of it to be thirty feet, and at the first branch twelve feet. Its weight we estimated to be four hundred and forty tons. The other tree, now growing without the least sign of decay, resembles an immense tower rising among the humble Sassafras-trees, although very large in fact. The Gum-tree at three feet above the ground measured one hundred and two feet in circumference. In the space of a square mile, I think there were not less than one hundred of these trees, none less than forty feet in circumference. It must require several thousand years to produce the largest one."—Revue Horticole.
[8]"Rave," the railing of the sled.
[9]The adventures of a mess-mate.
[10]Old fallen trees.
[11]I should make one exception; J. G. Whittier has lifted his gifted pen for them.
[12]To the following gentlemen, viz., Messrs. Todd & Darling, J. M'Alister, Esq., of St. Stephen's, and to W. Pike, Esq., port surveyor; L. L. Lowell, Esq., and other gentlemen of Calais, I am under lasting obligations for the courteous and intelligent manner in which they responded to the various questions proposed in preparing the statistics for the above table.
[13]For the most important facts involved in the annexed statement I am chiefly indebted to the kindness of Deacon Talbot, of East Machias, and to other gentlemen engaged in the business residing at West Machias.
[14]Dr. Jackson.
[15]Since the above was written, fourteen townships more have become available.
[16]Sec. III. Of the Treaty between the States and Great Britain, 1842.—In order to promote the interests and encourage the industry of all the inhabitants of the countries watered by the River St. John's and its tributaries, whether living within the State of Maine or the province of New Brunswick, it is agreed that where, by the provisions of the present treaty, the River St. John's is declared to be the line of boundary, the navigation of the said river shall be free and open to both parties, and shall in no way be obstructed by either; that all the produce of the forest in logs, lumber, timber, boards, staves, or shingles, or of agriculture, not being manufactured, grown on any of those parts of the State of Maine watered by the River St. John's or by its tributaries, of which fact reasonable evidence shall, if required, be produced, shall have free access into and through the said river and its said tributaries, having their source within the State of Maine, to and from the seaport at the mouth of the River St. John's, and to and around the falls of the said river, either by boats, rafts, or other conveyance; that, when within the province of New Brunswick, the said produce shall be dealt with as if it were the produce of the said province; that, in like manner, the inhabitants of the territory of the Upper St. John's, determined by this treaty to belong to her Britannic majesty, shall have free access to and through the river for their produce, in those parts where the said river runs wholly through the State of Maine:Provided, always, That this agreement shall give no right to either party to interfere with any regulations not inconsistent with the terms of the treaty, which the governments, respectively, of Maine or of New Brunswick may make respecting the navigation of the said river, where both banks thereof shall belong to the same party.
[17]The amount varies from year to year, sometimes exceeding, and then again falling short of the amount above stated.
[18]Sawed on the river and from the country.
[19]There are various other kinds of short lumber, such as staves, sash and window-blind stuff, not enumerated.
[20]The author, in preparing the above statement, has availed himself of the most reliable sources of information, and would particularly mention the following gentlemen, to whose intelligence and kindness he is particularly obligated Mr. S. Harris, of the surveyor general's office; Rufus Dwinel, Esq., and Mr. Taylor, of Bangor; also A. W. Babcock, Esq., and several other gentlemen of Orono.
[21]Geological Reports of Maine.
[22]Williamson's History of Maine.
[23]Several letters were written to different gentlemen at Saco, such as were named to me by their friends abroad, for information on this subject; but from some cause, they have remained silent, having taken no notice of my letters, which, I am happy to say, forms butone, and the only exception to the prompt and intelligent responses the author has received from gentlemen wherever his inquiries have been directed, whether to the province of New Brunswick, or to gentlemen in Calais, Bangor, Augusta, Brunswick, and Portland, Maine.
[24]Dr. Jackson's Geological Reports.
[25]History of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
[26]Having no data upon which to form an estimate of the amount of these products, we simply give this result as problematical. It probably falls short very far of the true annual value.