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hours, or a temperature of 40 C. (104 Fahr.) will destroy 

 its vitality in one hour. Other fungi are, however, capable 

 of resisting higher temperatures. 



Dry air is incapable of causing decomposition. If we 

 can exclude humidity from the wood it will prevent the 

 primary cause of decay. Any kind of wood kept absolutely 

 air-tight will not decay, as, for instance, wood completely 

 submerged in water. 



It was owing to absence of air and moisture that the 

 mammoth was preserved for untold ages in the ice of the 

 Russian rivers, and the wonderful preservation of 

 the wooden Egyptian coffins and statues for 5,000 or 

 6,000 years is largely owing to the dryness of the 

 Egyptian atmosphere. 



Timber buried in the ground has in most cases a very 

 long life. In clay it is practically indestructible. 



The piled foundations of the ancient lake dwellings in 

 our own and other countries are in fair condition after 

 being in place for thousands of years ; the piled founda- 

 tions of the great and important buildings of Venice, 

 Amsterdam, and other cities have carried their loads for 

 centuries. 



A cutting from a Memel pile recently taken out of the 

 soft ground at Hull, now in the possession of the author, 

 is as sound as when it was put down more than a hundred 

 years ago. Another, from a small oak pile taken out of a 

 river bed, which had probably been there a thousand years, 

 is also quite sound. The oak foundation piles from the 

 bridge constructed across the river Tyne by the Romans 

 were, when taken out of the river bed forty years ago, 

 found to be so little the worse after being buried eighteen 

 centuries that pieces of furniture were made from them, 

 and a piece of cypress wood in good condition was a few 

 years back found in the New Orleans Drainage Canal, 



