545 TURPEJiTTINE FROM BRITISn FIRS. 



lightwood, is what they call lightwood, not from the weight of it, as 

 it is very heavy, but from its combustible nature, as it 

 will light with a candle, and a piece of it thrown into the 

 fire will give light enough to read and write by. All the 

 pitch-pine will not become lightwood ; the people concern- 

 ed in making tar know it from the appearance of the 



and wood from turpentine in the grain of the wood. The other sort of 



trees boxed for ^qq^j which is used, after the trees which have been boxed 

 turpentine. 



for I turpentine have done running, they split off the faces 



Ofer which the turpentine has run; and of this wood is 

 made what is called green tar, being made from green wood 

 instead of dry. 

 Modeofmak- When a sufficient quantity of wood is got together, the 

 iBgthetar. Uj,g^ g^gp jg ^Q Uj^ ^ stake in the ground, to which they 

 fasten a string, and from the stake, as a centre, they de- 

 scribe a circle on the ground according to the size they wish 

 to have the kiln." They consider that one, twenty feet in 

 diameter, and fourteen feet high, should produce them two 

 hundred barrels of tar. They then dig out all the earth a 

 spit deep, shelving inwards within the circle, and sloping 

 to the centre; the earth taken out is thrown up in a bank 

 about one foot and a half high round the edge of the cir- 

 cle; they next get a pine that will split strait, of a suf- 

 ficient length to reach from the centre of the circle some 

 way beyond the bank ; this pine is split through the mid- 

 dle, and both parts arc then hollowed out, after which they 

 are put together, and sunk in such a way, that one end, 

 which is placed in the centre of the circle is higher than 

 that end which comes without the bank, where a hole is 

 dug in the ground for the tar to run into, and whence the 

 tar is taken up and barrelled as it runs from the kiln. 

 After the kiln is marked out, they bring the wood, ready 

 split up, in small billets, rather smaller than are generally 

 used for the fires in England, and it is then packed as close 

 as possible, with the end inwards, sloping towards the 

 middle, and the middle is filled up with small wood and the 

 knofs of trees, which last have more tar in them than any 

 other part of the wood. The kiln is built in such a way, 

 that at twelve or fourteen feet high it will overhang two or 

 three feet, and it appears quite compact and solid. After 



the 



