192 TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [CHAP. 
ments on the subject of Jarrah timber, and also between 
the Governor of Western Australia and the leading ship- 
builders and ship-owners, including Lloyds’ surveyor at 
Freemantle, who had been severally asked to report 
upon the merits of the Jarrah, with a view to getting it 
recognised at Lloyds’. 
Most of the ship-builders and ship-owners have 
reported very favourably, and speak of it as a good 
description of wood. They say that, when used with iron 
fastenings, neither material is in any way injured by the 
other, and, also, what is a little remarkable, that it bends 
well without steaming. In speaking of its merits, how- 
ever, they nearly all do so under some reserve, such as 
insisting on the felling being done at a certain time of 
the year ; getting it from some particular district, and so 
forth. Lloyds’ agent at Freemantle, however, does not 
report quite so favourably of it; indeed, he differs so 
widely from the rest, that perhaps it would be well to 
quote his report 272 extenso:— 
“Tn reply to your letter relative to the qualities of the 
Jarrah of this country as a ship-building timber, I con- 
sider it valuable wood for planking purposes as high as 
the wales, and I also consider it especially excellent 
wood for small craft which are not intended to be 
sheathed with metal, inasmuch as it resists the sea-worm 
better than almost any other wood, and is less liable to 
foul; but I do not consider it suitable timber for top- 
sides, or deck work, where it must necessarily be much 
exposed to the effects of the sun, it being, in such 
positions, more than ordinarily subject to shrink and 
warp; and it is rather deficient in tenacity of fibre, so 
that in situations where eccentric or sudden bends occur 
it cannot generally be employed with advantage. It is 
probable you may have heard of the Honourable East 
