146 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [CHAP. 



shrinks very little, it rarely warps, and stands exposure 

 to the weather a long time without opening with surface 

 shakes, or sustaining any apparent damage. 



African timber, possessing, as it does, so many 

 good properties, is employed in ship-building for 

 beams, keelsons, riding bitts, stanchions, &c., and in 

 a variety of ways ; but in civil architecture, and in the 

 domestic arts, it is only sparingly used, on account of 

 its weight. 



This timber is brought upon the market in very 

 roughly-hewn logs, intended, no doubt, to be square, 

 but varying considerably from that form, and taking, 

 generally, the most irregular shapes (Fig. 23). Some- 



FIG. 23. 



times they are angular, at other times they have a thick 

 and a thin edge, resembling, in some degree, a " feather- 

 edge " board ; again, we find they are neither tapered to 

 the natural growth of the tree, nor made parallel longi- 

 tudinally, but vary in thickness in that direction, leading 

 to a most serious waste of the raw material in the neglect 

 to preserve the fullest-sized square log obtainable from 

 the tree. 



It will naturally be inferred that, being thus awk- 

 wardly shaped, it is the most difficult of all timber to 

 measure correctly. 



