CHAPTER XXVIII. 

 NORTHERN PINE — [Continued). 



RIGA FIR (JPinus sylvestris). 



This timber takes its name from the port of shipmentj 

 although many of the forests from which it is drawn 

 are very far back in the interior of Russia.* It is the 

 produce of a tree of almost perfectly straight growth, 

 with lighter branches than are usually found in the 

 Firs of the same species brought into Dantzic ; it is con- 

 sequently more free from injurious and objectionable 

 knots. 



The Riga closely resembles the Dantzic Fir timber 

 in being whitish in colour and tinged slightly with red, 

 but is rather lighter looking. It is tough, flexible, mode- 

 rately strong, and scarcely so heavy as the Dantzic Fir, 

 the respective specific gravities being about 541 and 582, 

 It has a clean, fine, straight grain, and is a little shaky 

 at the pith. It cannot, therefore, be converted into 



* Slowly grown Pines, such as are found in high latitudes or at great eleva- 

 tions, are usually heavier, denser, and more even in quality than those of the 

 same species in warmer situations ; this is because the quantity of softer spring- 

 wood is proportionally smaller in the narrower annual rings. The converse is 

 true of Oak (see Marshall Ward, "The Oak," p. 144. Kegan Paul, 1892). 



