Bram.—O». the Building Materials of Otago. 161 
feet high and five feet diameter. A log recently taken at random on the Ore- 
puki Railway measured fifty-five feet to the lowest branch ; it was four feet 
three inches diameter at the butt, three feet six inches diameter at a height 
of forty feet from the ground, and four fect three inches diameter at the top. 
At Catlin River mature trees measure about forty feet long by two feet six 
inches to four feet diameter ; those from sixty to eighty feet, of which there are 
a large number, do not generally exceed eighteen inches in diameter. The logs 
that came from Pine Hill are usually about twenty feet long, and from eighteen 
inches to two feet six inches thick. Red pine trunks have little taper, they 
are almost cylindrical from the ground to the lowest branches ; the base is 
usually furnished with buttresses that run eight or ten feet up, consequently 
the trunk is not round for that distance. The bark is rough and scaly, and 
of a dark brown colour ; it comes off in large flakes every year, which in 
course of time forms a huge mound of a peaty nature round the tree. This 
mound ignites readily when dry, so is possibly the cause of many bush fires. 
Young red pine is noted for its beautiful green foliage, which droops in 
feathery tassels like larch or willow ; but, as the tree grows old, the foliage 
becomes stiff and erect like the other native pines. An ordinary-sized tree 
reaches maturity in about 500, years, and young plants make wood at the 
rate of about a foot per annum. Seedlings are very tender and difficult 
to rear when removed from their native forests, and large trees are easily 
killed by stripping a ring of bark near the roots. The bark of the red pine 
is good for tanning, and the juice of the young branches was made into 
beer by Captain Cook; but I have not heard of its being utilized in the 
same way by any other white man. 
This timber has a very large proportion of sap-wood which is not well 
defined. There is little or no heart in trees under eighteen inches in 
diameter, a size that is frequently cut into market stuff. The following 
notes give the quantity of sap-wood in a number of large trees at Orepuki. 
No. 1.—4' 6" diameter, 8 feet from ground had 10 inches of sap. 
2.—4’ 0’ s 10 5, » n o ay ” 
8.—98' T 9 40 > 39 35 44 9 
4—3 6" i S is 2 s. 
5.—9 0" Ri 48 -.,, j i 4 » 
6.—2' 8" 9 , 4 
The trunk of No. 1 was forty-six feet long. Three feet logs from Pine Hill, 
Water-of-Leith, and Blanket Bay, at Messrs. Asher and Co.'s yard, show 
from three to four inches of sap. One tree nineteen inches in diameter had 
only nine inches of heart. At Catlin River, where this tree seems to grow 
remarkably well, the proportion of sap-wood is smaller than near Dunedin ; 
U 
