He was Tayoga, a coming chief of the Clan of the Bear, of the nation Onondaga, of the League of the Hodenosaunee, and he would not exchange places with any man of whom he had heard in all the world.
The forest was the friend of Tayoga and he knew it.

He could name the trees, the elm and the maple, and the spruce and the cedar and all the others.

He knew the qualities of their wood and bark and the uses for which every one was best fitted.

He noticed particularly the great maples, so precious to the Iroquois, from which they took sap and made sugar, and which gave an occasion and name to one of their most sacred festivals and dances.

He also observed the trees from which the best bows and arrows were made, and the red elms and butternut hickories, the bark of which served the Iroquois for canoes.
When Tayoga passed through a forest it was not merely a journey, it was also an inspection.