72 



BRITISH FOREST TREES. 



and dry, the condition most favourable to putrefac- 

 tion, and surrounded by a close, warm, putrid atmo- 

 spliere, — it very soon, especially in masses, becomes 

 corrupted. It requires more time to season or dry 

 in the deal than any other wood, owing to the fine- 

 ness of fibre, smallness of pores, and want of density. 

 From this quality of parting with its moisture with 

 extreme slowness, it forms convenient deck-planking 

 for vessels on tropical stations, or when employed in 

 carriage of unslacked lime, as the plank does not 

 readily shrink and become leaky under the great eva- 

 poration occasioned by the heat and arid air. Yellow 

 pine has generally about 40 growths of sap- wood. 



We have had no acquaintance with American 

 pitch pine as a growing tree. As a timber, it is su- 

 perior in several respects to all the others, having 

 a great deal more resinous matter, so much, as 

 often to render it semitranslucent. It is strong and 

 weighty, and is used as a naval timber for most of 

 the purposes to which other pine timber is appHed. 

 It forms the very best bottom planking. The ship- 

 wrights of the docks at Devonport ^vill attest its 

 quahty, as the bottom planking of the Gibraltar of 

 80 guns : this vessel carried home to England from 

 the Mediterranean, a piece of coral rock of about ten 

 tons weight sticking in her bottom, her preservation 



