xxxiv.] YELLOW PINE. 277 



rally proved equal to the strains brought to bear upon 

 it ; the stays, shrouds, and other rigging being quite 

 sufficient to hold it against any ordinary amount of 

 pressure.* 



After the spars have been withdrawn from each 

 season's fall of trees, the remainder are hewn into a 

 square form, producing logs varying from 14 to 26 inches 

 square, and from 1 8 to 40 feet in length (Fig. 29). These 

 pass through a sorting for quality, to suit the market, but 

 there are no official brands by which the surveyor could 

 at once identify them. Good, sound, practical judgment 

 is therefore most essential for making a selection of this 

 wood. 



Occasionally we see quoted some " waney " timber 

 for board purposes, or "waney board timber." These 

 logs are not so perfectly hewn or squared as the ordinary 

 timber, and are usually short butts of trees, which are 

 very clean in the grain, free from knots, and solid at the 

 centre. These are probably procured from fine trees that 



* Masts made of Yellow Pine can seldom be relied upon after eight or 

 ten years' work, especially if they have been used in the tropics, where the 

 intense heat and rains deteriorate them very rapidly. Every care should 

 therefore be taken to preserve them, first by painting them only after thorough 

 seasoning, and then at intervals of a year or so. The covers at the wedging 

 decks should also be carefully looked to, and kept in good condition, to 

 prevent damp from affecting the mast at that part. The introduction of 

 iron for the lower masts of ships is now fast superseding the use of wood, 

 both in the royal and the mercantile navy. 



