56 EXPLOITATION IN GASCONY, 



obtain yellow resin the residue is washed up warm with a tenth of 

 water, and is also run into sand moulds. 



" All these products are useful. The essence is used in maiiing 

 varnish, in painting, in polishing, and in cleaning furniture, &c. It is 

 also used in medicine. Solid resin is used in making paper, soap, 

 stearine candles, torches, and sealing wax, and it is also used in 

 caulking vessels. 



" The residue of the first filtration of the raw resin is burned in 

 furnaces constructed for the purpose, the products being pitch and 

 tar. 



"One harrique of resin will produce 100 kilogrammes of essence of 

 turpentine which at present is worth 125 fi'ancs. The other products 

 cover the expense of manufacture, and yield a small profit. Dry pitch 

 sells at 18 francs the 100 kilogrammes. The same weight of yellow 

 resin fetches 20 francs. In another manufactory in the same town, 

 by exposing the dry pitch to intense heat, a double decomposition is 

 effected, and by different processes there are produced ethereal oils 

 for making vai'nish ; fixed oils, which are used for lamps, for greasing 

 the iron-work of carriages, and for injecting wood, and in making 

 printers' ink. 



" All these products conjointly constitute the principal value of the 

 maritime pine. But where there are means for removing it, the 

 product of timber becomes important. There are different opinions 

 as to the respective qualities of timber which has been gemnie or 

 tapped, and not genime. In pines which have been gemme the 

 current of resin, owing to the evaporation of the essence, always 

 leaves a good deal of concrete resin in the tissues, which increases 

 their durability. The annual growth decreases in thickness; but 

 data are awanting for making comparisons, as pines are rarely found 

 which have not been tapped, and these have generally been left to 

 serve as boundary lines between properties. They grow to a great 

 size, but they are seldom felled till they begin to decay. 



" One thing is certain, that the portion of the trunk which 

 contains the incisions is too much broken up to be useful for the 

 saw pit, but it furnishes very valuable and desirable vine poles ; it 

 is quite gorged with resin, which ensures their preservation. It 

 will also make staves for casks to hold solid resinous matter. 

 But the upper part of the tree is always free from breaks in the 

 continuity. At Cape Breton I have seen planks seven feet long by 

 seven inches broad, and five lines in thickness. In reducing these 

 measurements to the metrical system it will be seen that 100 of 



