ECONOMICAL GEOLOGY. 77 



timber, being all of second growth, is cut when large 

 enough to split into rails. Occasionally, a very thrifty 

 tree is found large enough to make one or two saw logs ; 

 these are sawn into boards. The value of a good cedar 

 swamp, of from fifty to seventy years' growth, is from 

 $400 to $1,000 an acre; and some acres have yielded con- 

 siderably more than that. There were sold from Dennis 

 and Upper townships, last year, 315,000 white cedar rails, 

 which were worth from |8 to $10 a hundred; and 595,670 

 feet of white cedar boards, worth $20 a thousand; being an 

 aggregate value of $40,263. 



The cedar logs which are buried in the swamps are also 

 mined, or raised and split into shingles ; and this singular 

 branch of industry furnishes profitable occupation to a con- 

 siderable number of men. Six hundred and ten thousand 

 shingles of this kind were sold last year at $15 a thousand, 

 or an aggregate of $9,150. 



In conducting this latter business, a great deal of skill 

 and experience is requisite. As many of the trees were 

 partly decayed and worthless when they fell, it becomes 

 important to judge of the value of the timber before much 

 labor is wasted upon it. With an iron rod the shingler 

 sounds the swamp until he finds what he judges to be a 

 good log ; he tries its length and size with this rod ; with 

 a sharp-cutting spade he digs through the roots and down 

 to it ; he next manages to get a chip from it, by the smell 

 of which he can tell whether it was a windfall or a hreah- 

 down; that is, whether it was blown down or broken off. 

 The former are the best, as they were probably sound 

 when they fell. If he judges it worth working, he cuts 



