TIMBERS. » 483 
equally suitable for all building purposes, framing, quartering, 
weather-boarding, planking, flooring, ceilings, balusters, railings, 
and fencing; it forms also durable cross-cut blocks for roadways 
and paths, easily laid and bedded in common sand. The specific 
gravity of the timber averages about 1.12; if well-dried, small 
scantlings will float in the sea, but when saturated will sink. 
Specimens direct from the mill weigh from 71 to 76lb. per cubic 
foot.” (Report of Clerk of Public Works, Fremantle, Western 
Australia.) 
The following additional remarks. are taken from the same 
Report :— 
' “The purposes to which Jarrah timber may be applied are 
innumerable; it fills the place where sal (Shorea robusta) and teak 
could not be admitted, as well as where they are used; and as the 
material can be supplied at a price somewhat less than the timbers 
named, in the log, and at half their price in scantling, it should be 
employed where hitherto timber has been considered undesirable ; 
for instance in sea-facing. . . . As a substitute for the 
roofing usually constructed in India, I believe shingling with 
Jarrah only requires to be known to be appreciated. At a distance 
these shingles might be mistaken for grey slates, they lie so close 
and regularly; thin as they are, they make a remarkably cool 
roof, and when once set require little or no repairs for years. 
I have seen here, where many roofs are of this material, houses 
that have not cost £1 in roof repairs for 25 years. They are 
water-tight in the heaviest downpour, and are not shifted in a 
hurricane. Their lightness admits of a considerable saving in the 
roof-framing. The saw-bench room at the Rockingham Mills is 
32ft. span. The heaviest timbers are only 6 x 2, the rafters 18in. 
apart, and the principals 6ft. With all these advantages, the 
shingles do not readily catch fire; burning charcoal thrown on 
them chars a hole, but does not inflame them. It is one of the 
most uninflammable timbers I am acquainted with. The shingles, 
as supplied from the mills are 24 x 4 x tin., weight less than rlb. 
each, are laid with an overlap of 16in., run about 450 to a square, 
are hung with French wire nails on sawn battens, the pitch of the 
roof being 45 degrees.” 
