CHAP. CXIII.

CONI'FEKAE. Af'BIES.

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the order commonly observed, and forms a few chasms, which have a goodeffect. When this is the case, the spruce fir ranks among picturesque trees.Sometimes it lias as good an effect, and in many circumstances a better,when the contrast appears still stronger; when the tree is shattered bysome accident, has lost many of its branches, and is scathed and ragged.A feathery branch, here and there, among broken stumps has often anadmirable effect; but it must arise from some particular situation. In allcircumstances, however, the spruce fir appears best either as a single tree,or unmixed with any of its fellows; for neither it, nor any of the spear-headed race, will ever form a beautiful clump without the assistance of othertrees.” (For. Seen., i. p. 93.) “ Luxuriantly as the spruce fir grows with us inBritain, ” says Sir Thomas Dick Lauder , “ we must crave for it the same justicewe have demanded for the Scotch pine, and deprecate any rash judgmentbeing formed, either on its external appearance, or on its timber, fromany other than the specimens exhibited in its native forests; where in-dividuals are to be found 150 ft. high, and with trunks 5 ft. in diameter.The spruce fir is the great tree of the Alps; and, so far as our opinionof its effect in landscape may go, we can only say that, with us, it isso mentally associated with the grandeur of Swiss scenery, that the sightof it never fails to touch chords in our bosom which awaken the mostpleasing recollections. What can be more truly sublime than to behold,opposed to the intensely blue ether, the glazed white summits of MontBlanc, or the Jungfrau , rising over the interminable forests of sprucefirs which clothe the bases of the mountains; whilst some such giganticspecimens as those we have been noticing rise in groups among the rocksbefore us, many of them shivered, broken, and maimed by tempests, theirdark forms opposed to all the brilliant prismatic hues of some immensegorgeous glacier, which nourishes in its vast bosom a mighty river, thatis doomed to fertilise and to enrich whole kingdoms.” ( Lauder ’s Gilpin, i.p. 178.) Sir James Edward Smith observes that the long, sweeping, fan-likebranches of the spruce, after broken down by loads of snow, and boiste-rous winds, have a grand effect in alpine landscapes, and have been wellemployed in the sublime compositions of Salvator Rosa and the Germanengravers.

The resinous Products of the Spruce Fir are of a different kind from thoseof most of the trees of the genus Rinus. The sap does not flow from the treein the form of turpentine, but slowly oozes out from between the bark andthe soft wood, hardening by exposure to the air. The principal product ofthis tree is the Burgundy pitch of the shops, which is the congealed sapmelted, and clarified by boiling it in water. To collect it, the operator,in spring, before the sap is in motion, cuts out a strip of bark 3 ft. long, and1 in. or 1 Jin. wide, vertically from the south side of the tree, as deep as thesoft wood, but without wounding it. This is done with an instrument madeon purpose, resembling a knife, with a crooked blade at one end, and aflat blunt piece of iron at the other. The lower part of the incision, whichis brought down to within 20 in. of the ground, is cut sloping, so as to preventthe rain water from lodging in the groove. As soon as the sap is in motion,the sides of this groove begin to fill with resinous matter, which, however,accumulates very slowly; and it is not till the month of July or Augustinthe following year that the groove will be full; when the resin is scraped outwith the hooked-bladed knife before mentioned, and put into a conicalbasket, or scuttle, made of bark, till wanted for manufacturing. In thespring of the next year, a thin slice of bark is cut off each side of the groove;and in the August of the year following, a second crop of resin is obtained;but this is much inferior to the first. As the process may be carried so faras to destroy the tree, the following rules have been laid down by Hartigfor procuring the resin :— 1st, To choose the trees only from forests destinedto furnish wood for fuel. 2dly, Not to begin to extract resin till within 10 or12 years of the period when the trees are destined to be cut down; and

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