s that the whole bodies, branches, and roots of the trees being
perished, some certain knots only of the boughs have been left remaining
intire, (these knots are that part where the bough is joyn'd to the body
of the tree) lying at the same distance and posture, as they grew upon
the tree for its whole length. The bodies of some of these trees are not
corrupted through age, but quite consum'd, and reduc'd to ashes, by the
annual burnings of the Indians, when they set their grounds on fire;
which yet has, it seems, no power over these hard knots, beyond a black
scorching; although being laid on heaps, they are apt enough to burn. It
is of these knots they make their tar in New-England, and the country
adjacent, whilst they are well impregnated with that terebinthine, and
resinous matter, which like a balsom, preserves them so long from
putrefaction. The rest of the tree does indeed contain the like
terebinthine sap, as appears (upon any slight incision of bark on the
stem, or boughs) by a small crystalline pearl which will sweat out; but
this, for being more watery and undigested, by reason of the porosity of
the wood, which exposes it to the impressions of the air and wet,
renders the tree more obnoxious; especially, if it lie prostrate with
the bark on, which is a receptacle for a certain intercutaneous worm,
that accelerates its decay. They are the knots then alone, which the
tar-makers amass in heaps, carrying them in carts to some convenient
place not far off, where finding clay or loam fit for their turn, they
lay an hearth of such ordinary stone as they have at hand: This, they
build to such an height from the level of the ground, that a vessel may
stand a little lower than the hearth, to receive the tar as it runs out:
But first, the hearth is made wide, according to the quantity of knots
to be set at once, and that with a very smooth floor of clay, yet
somewhat descending, or dripping from the extream parts to the middle,
and thence towards one of the sides, where a gullet is left for the tar
to run out at. The hearth thus finish'd, they pile the knots one upon
another, after the very same manner as our colliers do their wood for
charcoal; and of a height proportionable to the breadth of the hearth;
and then cover them over with a coat of loam, or clay, (which is best)
or in defect of those, with the best and most tenacious earth the place
will afford; leaving only a small spiracle at the top, whereat to put
the f