94 ESSAY UPON REDWOOD. 



" choice," because the recent wood is often too light-colored, 

 whilst this is darker stained with age, beautifully tinted and 

 shaded ; curled-grained pieces abound in these cases, made 

 and provided for the handsomest ornamental cabinet and 

 similar purposes certainly equal to the best mahogany. 

 We may safely say we have never had the good fortune to 

 see any mahogany that for beauty would favorably compare 

 with it. 



In passing, it is worthy of note that such lumber is not 

 *so subject, if at all in any appreciable degree, to that irregu- 

 lar shrinkage which is apt to mar the smoothness of the sur- 

 face of the middle and more southern coast timber. We al- 

 lude to the soft, cellular interspaced portions, so to speak, 

 between the grain, shrinking away from the harder, horny por- 

 tions of the wood, thereby roughening it into ridges, and 

 spotting the finely dressed surfaces during age and exposure. 

 But the defect of recent green-cut redwood by no means im- 

 pairs the strength or durability of most of the timber from 

 middle and lower sections of the Coast of California. This 

 timber is cut all the year round ; nor, so far as we are aware, 

 does it seem to make much difference in what moon or con- 

 dition of sap the trees are felled. At least, we believe it is 

 conceded on all hands, that no insects, to speak of, ever 

 molest the living trees, nor none the matured heart-wood 

 when cut. This is all the more surprising, because the wood 

 has neither the resin of pines, nor the usual oil of other ce- 

 dars. However, there will be some open questions for wiser 

 governments, or able and worthy, probably some self-sacri- 

 ficing scientist of the future, to determine. 



