Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1879-05-20

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stripped or pulled at one operation the
entire bark from both trunk and all the
numerous branches. The bark of leather
wood is exceedingly tough, soft and flex-
ible, and may be easily stripped into long
strings, that are as strong as the tough
est leather. Moose woods, or leather
woods only grow from three TO five feet
high, but they have thick trunk and
stocky branches. The wood is as white
as printing paper, and very fine, close
grained. Ii is so fine that it can be cut
in any direction with the greatest ease
Before the bark is taken off, all the
branches of the whole tree can be braid
ed into a close, compact, flexible roll, and
no man is strong enough to break it,
neither by pulling, bending or twisting.
Next we entered dry open level space
in the woods, with short tree covered
slope rising on one side, and the brook
and woods beyond on the other Soon
we came in sight of number of tall,
slim trees, with rough, deeply furowed
bark, and long, wiry, tough looking
branches. From near the ground, up to
a height of six or seven feet, the bark OF
these trees had been in part or wholly
removed They were slippery clms, and
some of them appeared as though barked
years before, while others had been
peeled recently. From one of the elms,
that had been lately completely stripped
above ground, my brother, with his knife
cut some bark that had been left close TO
and partly in the ground After clean
ing, we ate it, and found the bark so
tender, that it could be easily cut across
the grain with our teeth, almost as though
it had been cheese. This bark, from
near the roots, was thick, sweet and mu-
cilaginous.
While digging around the foot of the
elm, my brother found curious little
plant, almost buried in the loose, black
earth. Ii had long, crooked root,
about as large around as a common lead
pencil; black outside, white inside,
tough and springy, but breaking square
off, without showing any grain or fibre;
and the piece we had devoid of rootlets.
On top of this tough crooked root, was a
large, pure white bud, that looked like
miniature, well blanched cabbage. After
removing the white, waxy outside leaves,
| found snugly curled up inside, baby
mandrake, or May apple plant, with It's
forked stem, flower and bud, and two
palmate leaves, all complete, and Of a
pale yellowish green color; while the
leaves that enveloped the little plant were
of snowy whiteness.
Beside the brook, with part Of It's
roots laid bare by the water, was an elm,
with dry hard earth on the Landslide.
Taking a small slab Of red sandstone,
that lay near heap Of ashes and burnt
sticks close by, made a seat of the
stone at the foot of the tree by the
stream, and from that position sat and
watched the water. A short distance up
was a small rapid, from which solitary
bubbles hoated swiftly down the current
into a pool where the single bubbles
joined into groups, and then went sailing
up stream and down, up and down, IN
an unceasing circle or eddy. AT the foot
of the pool was a dam of drift-wood,
and before the dam was q large patch Of
still water, covered with patches of
bubbles, standing perfectly motionless.
Though on It's face the water was as
placid and stagnant as a model Sunday
school scholar, yet down under that
listlesS surface, the stream was digging
out the bottom, with the silent energy Of
a Jail bird burrowing through a wall.
| saw no fish, though two years before,
and at about the same time of the year
as now, while rambling through these
same woods, | found the brook swarming
with fish, and many OF them quite large.
think likely that a good number Of
them have gone to the Happy Swimming
Grounds through the digestive apparatus
of those big water snakes that now lay
dead in heap beside the woodland bridge.
Probably the air-breathing water snakes
are more highly organized. or more evo-
luted than the water breathing fish. but
it is also probable that most people would
take the fish, and consign the snakes to
Old Nick. with all their superiority.
The diminishing light told us that the
| ~,
our seats, and after passing through level
woods, climbed tree covered slope, and
soon after found ourselves in lonely,
grass grown, hummocky field, with
large stones, old stumps, and small trees
scattered here and there. 1t was just
such field as would be stamping
ground for goblins, pixies and other mar
velous beings, if modern common sense
had not banished all grotesque or tanci-
full supernatural creatures out OF this
world-or if it has not succeeded IN BAN
ishing them, it has made belief in such
things so ridiculous, that few would dare
to own having seen them.
On some of the stones scattered over
the field, we found number of round,
disk-shaped, smooth, tight, paper nests,
made by spiders. Iopened two of them
and found both cram full of infant spiders.
As soon as released from their close
prison-like nests, the young spiders scam
pered away over my hands with liveI-
ness, that was remarkable, considering
how closely they had been packed and
sealed up ever since hatched. think
that the eggs that produced them, must
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