The Living Trunk and Branches 135 



And botanists received one more proof of the 

 durability of wood. 



Wood can last, indeed, much more than a 

 thousand years. In some of the old cave temples 

 of India there are logs of teak, still in good con- 

 dition, though they were placed where they now 

 stand more than two thousand years ago. 



Wood can outlast metals. Sun-bleached wrecks 

 lie on the coast with their timbers still strong, 

 while the nails and bolts which once held them 

 together are almost entirely rusted away. 



It Is true that logs and stumps, in the deep 

 woods, rot quickly; but this is because they are 

 bored by insects and eaten up, so to say, by tiny 

 but deadly plant enemies. 



Timber — so strong, so lasting, and so neces- 

 sary to our work and life — Is made of what? 

 A large proportion of it is composed of invisible 

 gases. 



When wood is burned In the open air, all those 

 parts of its make-up which are akin to air pass 

 into the atmosphere in the form of gas. 



There is always, too, a quantity of water in 

 timber. The closest, dryest logs are more than 

 half water. This will go off, when they are 

 burned, as invisible steam. 



Only ash Is left — made of the substances which 

 the tree took from the ground. This ash is never 

 more than one-tenth the weight even of the dryest 

 timber. All the rest of that mass of wood which 



