^s well as of deteriorated Animals. 29 



from those of the former growth. Those prostrate are 

 in many mstances, of the resinous tribe, where those 

 of a totally different kind are now growing, of enormous 

 dimensions ; in sites where white pine, pitch pine, and 

 hemlock, had formerly possession; so that the living 

 timber must be very antient.* The largest trees ma- 



on those the best presen'ed, have established itself after de- 

 siccation. Where the covering has been premature, these 

 trunks have been converted into vegetable mould, by the fer- 

 menting and feculatlng of the sap, confined and prevented 

 from evaporation. Some of them, in the shapes or forms of 

 fallen trunks of trees, have the consistency and texture of 

 green hillocks, of rich earth. Some trees may have been 

 blown down by tempests, in critical stages of the sap, when 

 timber is naost liable to rapid decay. 



To prevent the heart rot in timber, boring- through the 

 center, longitudinally, is effectual, ^larteriyig and sawing', 

 through the hearty are also preservatives, if afterwards, the 

 pai-ts be artificially joined ; and grooves, or passages, left, or 

 made, for the admission of air. 



* The growth of timber is, in our climate, so rapid, that 

 in 25 years, it is of size sufficient, for every purpose com- 

 monly required ; and possibly, on this account the less dura- 

 ble. Some years ago, when attending the subdivision of a 

 body of lands in l^ork County^ I measured an oak growing 

 out of a cellar of a ruined house or cabin, which had been 

 inhabited 35 years before. The tree was near two feet in 

 diameter. Around this ruin, there w^as a beautiful wood, of 

 healthy and thriving timber ; standing where grain had been 

 raised, by the occupant of the building. The traces of in- 

 closures were evident, through the woods ; and some of the 

 rails were not decayed. At iron works, they cut, for char- 

 coal, the second growtli of timber, after a lapse of from eigh- 



