The notch or sliced bark of a tree is called a
"blaze" in bush language. These blazed trees are of much use as
finger-posts on a dark night. They are best made by two persons; one
chipping the trees on his right, and the other those on his left. If the
axes are quite sharp, they only need to be dropped against the tree in
order to make the chip. Doing so, hardly retards a person in his walking.
Another way more suitable to some kinds of forests, is to strike the
knife into the left side of the tree, to tear down a foot of bark, and to
leave the bark hanging, for a double extent of white surface is shown in
this way. Also, to break down tops of saplings and leave them hanging:
the undersides of the leaves being paler than the upper, and the
different lines of the reversed foliage make a broken bush to look
unnatural among health trees, and it quickly arrests the attention. If
you want a tree to be well-scored or slashed, so as to draw attention to
it without fail, fire bullets into it, as into a mark, and let the
natives cut them out in their own way, for the sake of the lead. They
will effect your purpose admirably, without suspecting it.
Stamping Marks on Trees.--The keepers of some of the communal forests in
Switzerland are provided with small axes, having the back of the axe-head
worked into a large and sharp die, the impression of the die being some
letter or cipher indicating the commune.
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