well-known medicine--the "Canada balsam." This tree, in
favourable situations, attains the height of sixty feet; while upon the
cold summits of mountains it is often seen rising only a few inches from
the surface. The "hemlock spruce" (_Pinus Canadensis_), is another
species, the bark of which is used in tanning. It is inferior to the
oak, though the leather made by it is of excellent quality. The "black"
or "double spruce" (_Pinus nigra_), is that species from the twigs of
which is extracted the essence that gives its peculiar flavour to the
well-known "_spruce beer_." Besides these, at least a dozen new species
have lately been discovered on the interior mountains of Mexico--all of
them more or less possessing valuable properties.

The pines cannot be termed trees of the tropics, yet do they grow in
southern and warm countries. In the Carolinas, tar and turpentine,
products of the pine, are two staple articles of exportation; and even
under the equator itself, the high mountains are covered with
pine-forests. But the pine is more especially the tree of a northern
_sylva_. As you approach the Arctic circle, it becomes the
characteristic tree. There it appears in extensive forests, lending
their picturesque shelter to the snowy desolation of the earth. One
species of pine is the very last tree that disappears as the traveller,
in approaching the pole, takes his leave of the limits of vegetation.
This species is the "white spruce" (_Pinus alba_), the very one which,
along with the birch-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 less
than 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 a
bluish green tint. The cones upon it, which at that season were young,
were of a pale green. When ripe, however, they become rusty-brown, and
are nearly two inches in length.

What use Norman would make of this tree in building his canoe, neither
Basil nor Francois knew. Lucien only guessed at it. Francois asked the
question, by saying that he supposed the "timbers" were to come out of
it.

"No," said Norman, "for that I want still another sort. If I can't find
that 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 Fran