he
French-Canadians, the _cho-kho-tung_ of the New York Indians, the balsam
of the tenderfoot, the Christmas-tree of the little folk, and that
particular Coniferae known by the dry-as-dust botanist as Abies. There is
nothing in nature which has a wilder, more sylvan and charming perfume
than the balsam, and the scout who has not slept in the woods on a balsam
bed has a pleasure in store for him.

Balsam

The leaves of the balsam are blunt or rounded at the ends and some of them
are even dented or notched in place of being sharp-pointed. Each spine or
leaf is a scant one inch in length and very flat; the upper part is
grooved and of a dark bluish-green color. The under-side is much lighter,
often almost silvery white. The balsam blossoms in April or May, and the
fruit or cones stand upright on the branches. These vary from two to four
inches in length. The balsam-trees are seldom large, not many of them
being over sixty feet high with trunks from one to less than three feet
through. The bark on the trunks is gray in color and marked with
horizontal rows of blisters. Each of these contains a small, sticky sap
like glycerine. Fig. 1 shows the cone and leaves of one of the Southern
balsams known as the she-balsam, and Fig. 2 shows the celebrated
balsam-fir tree of the north country, cone and branch.

Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Fig. 4. Fig. 5. Fig. 6. Fig. 7.

[Illustration: Showing the use of the mountain goose.]

Balsam Beds

The balsam bed is made of the small twigs of balsam-trees. In gathering
these, collect twigs of different lengths, from eighteen inches long (to
be used as the foundation of the bed) to ten or twelve inches long (for
the top layer). If you want to rest well, do not economize on the amount
you gather; many a time I have had my bones ache as a result of being too
tired to make my bed properly and attempting to sleep on a thin layer of
boughs.

If you attempt to chop off the boughs of balsam they will resent your
effort by springing back and slapping you in the face. You can cut them
with your knife, but it is slow work and will blister your hands. Take
twig by twig with the thumb and fingers (the thumb on top, pointing toward
the tip of the bough, and the two forefingers underneath); press down with
the thumb, and with a twist of the wrist you can snap the twigs like
pipe-stems. Fig. 3 shows two views of the hands in a proper position to
snap off twigs easily and clean. The one at the left show