117 



them the true Blackwood for them to use it a good deal more. Years ago 

 Mr. Bauerlen told me of a Braidwood tradesman who made, for many years^ 

 articles of local Blackwood. His work had a deservedly good reputation, 

 and a skilled workman does not make chests of drawers, secretaires, plate- 

 chests, out of a timber of whose value he has any doubt. I know of another 

 tradesman at Delegate who used to make beautiful gun-stocks of it. The 

 price he got for his gun-stocks is so high that I am afraid to mention it, a& 

 everybody may turn to gun-stock making. Another tradesman uses it for 

 buggy naves. He, from time to time, used to go out and cut down a fair- 

 sized tree, let it season outside in the log, and cut length by length off aa 

 he wanted it. 



The manufacture of gun-stocks from this timber is a very old industry,, 

 particularly in Tasmania. I find that, in the season 1844-5, 430 gun-stocks 

 were exported from Launceston to Great Britain. 



8ize. — In the southern mountain districts there are many trees 70 or SO" 

 feet in height, with a stem diameter of 2 or 3 feet. The Mudgerabah, which 

 may be taken as a type of the northern New South Wales form, is usually 

 40 to 50 feet high, and also has a diameter of 2 or 3 feet. In Tasmania and 

 Victoria it is as large and larger than those of the southern mountain dis- 

 tricts of New South Wales. 



Distribution. — The Blackwood is best known as a Tasmanian and Vic- 

 torian tree. It also occurs in South Australia. It is extensively distributed 

 in the southern mountainous districts of New South Wales. It then seems 

 to skip over the immediate neighbourhood of Sydney, but reappears in the 

 rising country at the back of Port Stephens, and is extensively distributed 

 in the tableland of New England, extending into Queensland. From Port 

 Stephens to Queensland it is frequently found wherever the elevation is not 

 less than 2,500 feet. What its precise western boundary is we do not know at 

 present ; but I have seen it from Tenterfield, Glen Innes, and near Armidale. 

 It is by no means rare on the western slopes of the Blue Mountains, not on 

 the sandstone; but on the granite, following up the granite gullies where 

 there is a little seepage. It occurs abundantly in the Mudgee district. As 

 far as southern New South Wales and Gippsland are concerned, the Black- 

 wood must be considered as a mountain species, though it occurs occasionally 

 in the low coast.land; but there it never attains any size. It varies a good 

 deal in mode of growth, according to situation and geological formation. 

 Jn the rich humus of the jungle of the mountain slopes it attains a height of 

 from 60 to 80 feet, and in Gippsland, along the boundary of New South 

 Wales and Victoria, localities may be found where it attains a height of 

 120 feet, and a diameter of nearly 3 feet. There straight trunks may be 

 seen without a limb, from 60 to 80 feet high, the timber quite sound, and 

 possessing thfit beantiful dark colour whence the species has derived its 

 popular as well as its scientific name. When it grows on high mountains, 

 as on the Delegate and Tingiringi Mountains, amongst rocks and preci- 

 pices, it grows very gnarled and spreading, from 20 to 40 feet high, and 

 from 1 to 2 feet in diameter, sending out thick, long, gnarled, and crooked 

 limbs quite close to the ground. Mr. W. Bauerlen tells me that on the 

 Delegate Mountain he has seen them as low as 1 foot from the ground, with 

 the limbs of great length, and eventually touching the ground. Those trees 

 furnish most beautiful timber as far as grain and figure are concerned ; but 

 generally not quite so dark as the timber growing in the rich soil ; but the 

 situations are mostly inaccessible to vehicles of any kind. As regards the 

 southern part of the State, the Clyde Maintains, Braidwood, and the Bate- 

 man's Bay district, may be considered the most northern localities in New 



