STRENGTH OF CONIFEROUS TIMBER. 17 



In the Toronto Globe, of April 9, 1863, Mr. W. D. Ferris, writing 

 from New Westminster, British Columbia, states that the trunk of a 

 Douglas Fir, showing no signs of decay, had been discovered partially 

 embedded in the earth long enough to allow a Hemlock Spruce to grow 

 upon it which was fully one hundred and fifty years old.* 



The doors of St. Peter's at Kome, which had lasted from the time of 

 Constantine to that of Pope Eugene IV., about eleven hundred years, 

 were of Cypress wood, and were found, when removed by Pope Eugene, 

 to be perfectly sound, t 



The elder Michaux, in his journey to Hudson's Bay, in 1792, found 

 the church built there by the Jesuits still standing. This building was 

 constructed with squared logs of the Arbor Vitae, in 1728, as was 

 proved by an inscription over the door, and it had remained perfectly 

 sound more than sixty years.! 



The prostrate trunk of a Podocarpus spicatus was observed not long 

 since in a valley near Dunedin, New Zealand, to be enfolded by the 

 roots of three large trees of Griselinea littoralis, with trunks three and 

 a half feet in diameter, which must have grown from seed since its 

 fall. They were recently felled, and the growth rings count over 300, 

 thus approximating three hundred years, during which the timber of 

 the Podocarpus has remained so fresh and sound, that it has since 

 been split into posts for fencing purposes. § 



"The prostrate trunk of a Wellingtonia, with no signs of decay 

 in any part of it, had been burnt in two by a forest fire. In 

 the trench between the two portions a Silver Fir grew. This Fir 

 was felled, and had 380 annual rings ; therefore, to estimate the time 

 during which the Sequoia trunk had lain uninjured, we must add to 

 the three hundred and eighty years: — first, the time it lay before the 

 forest fire burnt it, and then the unknown interval between that time 

 and the arrival of the Silver Fir seed." || 



The steength of Coniferous timber has been tested by experiments. 

 The following results, obtained by the late Mr. W. "Wilson Saunders, 

 and published in the Gardeners' CJirmiicle for 1862, p. 643, will serve 

 for illustration: — 



"Lengths of each of the woods enumerated in the following table, 

 carefully squared to one and a quarter inch, were submitted to pressure of 

 weights pendent from the centre, the lengths being supported between two 

 standards exactly six feet apart. The weight at which each broke, and 

 the amount of deflection from the horizontal line at the time of breaking, 

 is given. 



* Lawson's Pinetum Britanmcum, Part xxxiii., Abies Douglasii. 



t Loudon, Arb. et Frut., p. 2467. 



t Idem, p. 2457. 



j Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, ex. 0ardeners' Chronicle, 1877, p. 594. 



|| Sir J. D. Hooker, Address at the Royal Institution, April 12, 1878. 



