THE JARRAH AND DEODAR 



Perhaps the most valuable woods are Box, which is used 

 for woodcuts, and Walnut, which used to be highly prized 

 for gun-stocks, as much as £600 having been paid for 

 a single tree. 



But the most interesting histories of trade in timber 

 belong to the commoner and more usual woods. The great 

 woods of Jarrah {Eucalyptiis marginatd) cover 14,000 

 square miles of Australia, but they are being rapidly cut 

 down and sawn up into small blocks to be carried right 

 across the world in order to form the pavement which 

 London cabmen and cab-horses prefer to any other. 



One remembers also the beautiful Deodar forests of 

 Afghanistan, and the Himalayas. Logs of deodar were floated 

 down the rivers to form bridges or temple pillars in Srinagar, 

 the capital of far Cashmere. Nowadays great " slides "" are 

 made, winding down into the valleys from the recesses of the 

 hills. When winter approaches, water is sprinkled on the 

 logs which make the slide ; this freezes and forms a slippery 

 descending surface, down which the deodar timber rushes till 

 it reaches the low ground, where it is cut up into railway 

 sleepers and takes part in the civilizing of India. 



The fragrant Teak has an oleoresin which prevents the 

 destructive white ants from attacking it ; it is the most 

 valuable timber for shipbuilding, and grows in many places 

 of India, Malaysia, Java, and Sumatra. It floats down the 

 rivers of Burmah, coming from the most remote hill jungles, 

 and elephants are commonly used at the ports to gather the 

 trunks from the water and pile them ready for shipment. 



The Birch is carried all the way from Russia to Assam 

 and Ceylon, in order to make the chests in which tea is sent 

 to England and Russia (native Indian woods are also used). 

 It is also used in the distillation of Scotch whisky, for 



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