180 MAHOGANY 



that magnetism is manifested as a polar force, as in a bar of iron. Every one is 

 familiar with the fact that a polarised bar, if free to move, places itself in a cer- 

 tain direction, which we call north and south. Besides iron, nickel and two or three 

 other metals possess this property. Bismuth, silver, glass, wood, and nearly all 

 other substances exhibit magnetic force of a different order, which is manifested in 

 all these bodies by their placing themselves at right-angles to a magnet, or to the 

 line of magnetic force. This condition has received the name of DIA-MAGNETISM, 

 which see. 



MAGNETITE. Oxydulated iron, or magnetic iron ore. One of the richest and 

 most important ores of iron. See IEON. 



MAGNET, NATIVE. See LOADSTONE and IRON. 



IVXAH AliEB. The fruit of this shrub affords a violet dye, as well as a fermented 

 liquor like Kirschwosser. Jt is a species of cherry, cultivated in our gardens. 



MAHOGANY. The wood of a tree (Swietenia Mahagoni), which is a native 

 of the West Indies. This -wood appears to have been first brought to England in 

 1724. 



SPANISH mahogany is imported from Cuba, St. Domingo, the Spanish Main, and 

 several of the West India Islands, in logs about 26 inches square, and 10 feet long. 

 Its general character is well known from its extensive use in cabinet-work. 



HONDURAS mahogany is generally lighter than the Spanish, and more open and 

 irregular in its grain. This is imported in large logs, many of 4 feet square and 18 

 feet in length. Planks are sometimes obtained of 7 feet in width. According to Mr. 

 Chief-Justice Temple, ' the cutting commences in the month of August. In April or 

 May, in which months the ground has become perfectly hard from the continued dry 

 weather, the wood is carried upon trucks drawn by bullocks to the water side ; and 

 about the middle of June, when the rivers are swollen by the floods, the logs are 

 floated down about 1 miles from the mouths of the different rivers, where they are 

 confined by a heavy boom drawn across the stream. Here the owners select their re- 

 spective logs, form them into rafts, and so float them down to the sea. The mahogany 

 is always trucked in the middle of the night, the cattle not being able to perform 

 such laborious work during the heat of the day. It is a picturesque and striking 

 scene this midnight trucking. The lowing of the oxen, the creaking of the wheels, 

 the shrill cries of the men, the resounding crack of their whips, and the red glare of 

 their pine torches in the midst of the dense dark forest, produce an effect approaching 

 to sublimity. 



' An impression has latterly existed that almost all the mahogany in British Hon- 

 duras has been cut. This, however, is a mistake. There is sufficient wood in the 

 country, both on granted and ungranted land, to supply the European as well as the 

 American markets for many years to come. A considerable quantity of mahogany has 

 been, within the last few years, cut in the state of Honduras and on the Mosquito 

 shore ; but the mahogany-works in the former country have been almost entirely 

 abandoned, partly on account of the wood, which is accessible, being nearly all cut, 

 and partly on account of the extra freight and insurance which are required when 

 vessels are loaded on that coast. Prom the Mosquito shore very few cargoes have 

 been lately sent, for the wood which grows there, although it is very large, is of 

 inferior quality. The mahogany-tree requires a rich dry soil. The best mahogany is 

 found to tire north of the river of Belize. In consequence of the nature of the soil in 

 that district, in which there is a great quantity of limestone, the mahogany is longer 

 coming to maturity, but, when fully grown, it is of a harder and firmer texture than 

 that which is found in the southern portion of the settlement. There is no wood 

 more durable than mahogany, and none that is so generally useful. It is stated in a 

 little book called the " Mahogany-Tree " that furniture is being made, in the royal 

 dockyards, out of the beautiful mahogany found in breaking up the old line-of-battle 

 ship the Gibraltar, which was built in Havana 100 years ago. The English and 

 French Governments purchase yearly a largo amount of mahogany for their dockyards. 

 During the last year the British Government required 12,000 tons, paying IQl. 17s. Gd. 

 per ton. The French government took 3,000 tons at the same price. The royal 

 yacht is built principally of Honduras mahogany. Private ship-builders are, however, 

 reluctant to make use of mahogany for their vessels, as Lloyd's Committee exclude all 

 ships of 12 years' standing in which the floors, futtocks, top-timber, keelson, stem and 

 stern-post, transoms, knightheads, hawse-timbers, apron, and dead wood, are made of 

 mahogany. 



' Mahogany vessels of 10 years' standing they admit, but oven these, I am informed, 

 it is their intention very shortly to exclude. The reason which they assign is, that 

 mahogany differs very much in quality, and it is impossible to know when a ship is 

 built of good or bad wood. But this difference in quality depends entirely upon the 

 district in which it has grown. If they restricted tho ship-builders to the northern 



