306 Buried White Cedar. 



and grows sometimes to 70 or 80 feet in height, with a diameter of 

 two feet. 



1253. This is one of the most valuable timber trees of the coun- 

 try, the wood being fine-grained, soft, light, and easily worked, with 

 a strong aromatic odor. It is used for frames of buildings, shingles, 

 and coopers' wares, and its charcoal for gunpowder. Lamp-black 

 of the best quality is made from its smoke. 



1254. " Enormous quantities of this wood are found buried in salt 

 marshes in Southern New Jersey, where no timber now grows. In 

 searching for it, the marshes are probed with iron rods, and when a 

 tree is found, its size, direction, and quality are ascertained. By 

 tearing off a piece of wood, it may be known by the odor, whether 

 it fell from age, or was" blown down by the winds. If the latter, it 

 is more valuable, and after cutting away the turf at the top, the 

 wood is sawn off in two places, when it will rise and float, always 

 bottom upwards, because the lower side is soundest, and the upper 

 side may have been long exposed to the weather. The wood has all 

 the buoyancy of fresh cedar, not being in the least water-logged, 

 and the under bark is still fresh. 



1255. " Occasionally a log will be got out that is thirty feet long. 

 It is generally shorter, and is worked up into shingles of the very 

 best quality. Tree after tree, from 200 to 1,000 years old, may be 

 found lying across one another, some partly decayed, as if they had 

 stood a long period after they were dead. The larger logs are some- 

 times sawn into boards. 



1256. " From $9,000 to $10,000 worth of shingles, valued at $15 

 per M., have been made in a single year from this buried cedar in 

 the vicinity of Denuisville. The occurrence of this cedar on a level 

 now below that of the sea, is deemed conclusive evidence of the sub- 

 sidence of this coast ; but this timber must have grown many thou- 

 sand of years ago, and must have been growing for a long period to 

 accumulate so great a quantity." * 



1257. THE GIANT ARBOR- VIT^E (Thuja gigantea) is by far the 

 finest of the cedars, and grows to a size scarcely inferior to that of 

 the Douglas fir and the sugar-pine. The branches are drooping 

 and the tree more symmetrical than the common white cedar, and 

 the wood is white and easily worked. It grows to great perfection 



^Forestry Report, 1877, p. 459, and authorities there cited. 



