TIMBERS. 481 
been exposed for seventeen years in water and sand, and of which 
the morticed ends were wholly untouched by any signs of decay ; 
also a noble burr of the same tree, five feet across and seven inches 
thick. ‘There was also exhibited a pile ten feet long by six thick, 
that had formed part of a jetty built in 1832, and removed in 1861. 
Neither sap-wood nor heart-wood was injured by the Zeredo,* 
which had attempted in vain to bore into it. In the Western 
Australian Court at the Colonial and Indian Exhibition, 1886, there 
was shown a pile of Jarrah which had been between wind and tide 
for forty-two years. It is not perfectly impervious to the Zereda, it 
is true, but that pest had only got as far as the sap. 
** Open to air and weather, on wind and water-line, under the 
soil or submerged, it is not materially effected, remaining intact 
after nearly fifty years’ trial. The choicest timber is obtained from 
the summit of the granite and ironstone ranges; trees grown on 
sandy plains near the sea yield atimber of inferior quality, twisted, 
also shorter in the grain, and much less durable.” (H. E. Victor.) 
“Without sheathing or other protection it has proved sound and 
enduring to an extent which appears to denote exemption from 
decay, so far as evidence can be obtained from observation 
of timber exposed for upwards of thirty years. I have recently 
taken up piles, which were driven for a whaling jetty in the 
year 1834 or 1835; the timber is small but perfectly free 
from boring marine mollusca, although the place is swarm- 
ing with TZeredo. In the old jetty-work at the port of 
Fremantle, piles which had been driven for thirty years, 
and others only about one year, could scarcely be. distinguished, 
‘both being equally sound; large iron-bolts through them have 
entirely corroded away, leaving the holes cleanand sound. Round 
piles with only their bark peeled off, driven before seasoning, 
appear to stand as well as those which were squared and seasoned. 
Young, as well as matured, wood had effectually resisted the attack 
of boring sea-worms and crustacea. A cargo-boat, upwards of 
twenty years old, exposed all the time, and as often high and dry 
as afloat, is as sound as when it was launched. Coasting craft, 
* The Teredo navalis bores wood below low-water mark. It always travels in the 
direction of the grain, unless it meets another teredo. 
21 
