88 DURABILITY OF CONIFEROUS WOOD. 



southern Pitch Pine, Western Larch, Douglas Fir and Deciduous 

 Cypress yield very durable timber, the specific gravity of which is 

 high, especially of the two first named. On the other hand the 

 almost worthless wood of the Wellingtonia, and the coarse-grained, 

 rapidly decaying wood of Abies concolor, A. Frascri, A. balsamea and 

 others have a low specific gravity.* 



Some remarkable instances of the durability of the wood of some 

 coniferous trees have been recorded : 



The Deodar pillars of the great Shah Hamaden Mosque, in the 

 capital of Kashmir, are probably more than 400 years old, and to 

 all appearances they are perfectly sound. Some of the bridges in 

 Srunagar that are built of Deodar timber are said to be of still 

 greater antiquity; the wood of which the piers are constructed are 

 alternately wet and dry and apparently suffer no decay, t A building 

 erected by order of the Emperor Akbar (1542 1605) was taken down 

 some time between 1820 and 1825, and its timber (Deodar Cedar) was 

 found to be so little impaired as to be fit to be employed in a house 

 built by Kajah Shah.} 



The gates of Constantinople which were destroyed by the Turks in 

 1453, after having lasted eleven hundred years, were made of the wood 

 of the European Cypress. And the doors of St. Peter's at Eome, 

 which had lasted from the time of Constantino to that of Pope Eugene 

 IV. (1431 47) were of Cypress wood, and were found when removed,, 

 to be perfectly sound. 



Robert Brown of Campster relates that in one of the dark damp 

 forests near the Pacific coast of north-west America, Dr. Cooper saw 

 trunks of Thuia gigantea lying prostrate with several Spruces (Picea 

 sitchensis) three to four feet in diameter growing on them, having evidently 

 taken root in the decaying bark, and extended their roots into the 

 ground adjoining ; while the interior of the Thuia logs was found still 

 sound, although partially bored by insects. Judging of the age of the 

 Spruces by the ordinary rules, these logs must have lain hundreds of 

 years, exposed to the action of one of the most humid of climates. || 



In the Toronto Globe of April 9, 1863, Mr. W. D. Ferris, writing 

 from New Westminster, British Columbia, states that the trunk of a 

 Douglas Fir, showing no signs of decay, had been discovered partially 

 embedded in the earth long enough to allow a Hemlock Spruce (Tsuya 

 Albertiana) to grow upon it which was fully one hundred and fifty 

 years old. 



The prostrate trunk of a Prumnopitys spicata was observed in a 

 valley near Duneclin, New Zealand, to be enfolded by the roots of 

 three large trees of Griselinia littoralis with trunks three and a-half feet 

 in diameter, which must have grown from seed since its fall. On 

 felling these trees it was found that they were approximating three 



* The woods of Thuia gigantea and Cupressus thy aides have a low specific gravity, 

 but they are reckoned amongst the most durable of American woods. 



t Brandis, Forest Flora of N. W. India, p. 519. 



$ London, Arboretum et Fruticetum Britannicum, IV. p. 2430. 



Idem. p. 2467. The wood of Cupressus sempervirens used in very old buildings in 

 Italy that are known to have stood from 600 to 1,000 years, is still sound. 



II Mpnogr. Tlmia in Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. IX. p. 369. Further remarkable instances of the 

 durability of Thuia gigantea timber are recorded in " Garden and Forest," II. (1889), p. 492. 



