Note 4 — PETER KALM’s TRAVELS. (continued 4)

In Siberia, and in the province of Wiatka, in the government of Cazan, in Russia, the inhabitants make use of the knobs, which are pretty frequently found in birches, to make bowls and other domestic utensils thereof. They are turned, made pretty thin, and covered with a kind of varnish, which gives them a pretty appearance; for the utensil looks yellow, and is marbled quite in a picturesque manner, with brown veins. The best kind of these vessels are made so thin that they are semi-diaphanous, and when put into hot water they grow quite pliant, and may be formed by main force, quite flat, but when again left to themselves, and grown cold, they return to their original shape. This kind of wood is called, in Russia, Kap, and the vessels made of it, kappowie Tchashki, and are pretty high in price, when they are of the best kind, and well varnished. F. ↑