158 TIMBER 



The wood was first imported into Great Britain from the 

 West Indies in 1724, when it was brought as ballast by a 

 Captain Gibbons, whose brother, a London doctor, wished 

 to use the timber in his house, then in course of construc- 

 tion, but it was so hard, compared to the timber to which 

 they had been used, that the workmen objected. As show- 

 ing the difference in size of Honduras mahogany now and 

 fifty years ago, a log of this wood was landed in Great 

 Britain in 1844, 13^ ft. long, 48| inches deep at one end, 

 86 inches deep at the other, and "61 inches thick, producing 

 2,289 superficial feet of timber. 



The total quantity of mahogany imported into Europe in 

 1907 was 159,830 tons, and of this quantity 121,743 tons 

 were from the west coast of Africa, more than half of 

 which went to Liverpool, the chief mahogany port. A very 

 large portion is transhipped to the United States. Over 

 32,000 logs of African mahogany came into the Liverpool 

 market in 1906, and the trade is continually increasing, 

 being in that year fifteen times more than all other kinds 

 of mahogany brought into the port (Figs. 25 and 27). 



About 25,000 tons of mahogany were exported from 

 Central America to Europe in 1907, and only about 13,000 

 tons from the West Indies, whence it comes chiefly to the 

 London market. As regards price there is not much differ- 

 ence between the different varieties ; so much depends upon 

 " figure " in this wood that the price varies very much, but 

 the West Indian wood is generally dearer. 



Weight of West Indian wood about 50 Ibs., and Honduras 

 about 35 Ibs. per cubic foot. 



Cedar. The cedar of commerce, the furniture cedar, is 

 the wood of the Cedrela odorata, of the same family as 

 mahogany, and comes from all the countries which produce 

 mahogany except West Africa, and lately a few logs have 



