WEST INDIA ISLANDS AND CENTEAL AMERICA 155 
(Fig. 27). Some of these big logs weigh 8 or 9 tons, and 
many of the " figured " logs bring fancy prices. Last year 
one log, 29| ft. long and 31 inches deep at the butt end, 
was sold at 6s. 10(/. per square foot of 1 inch thick, realising 
£493. Another log was sold at 7s. 9d. per square foot, and 
a few years ago three large logs from the same tree, 
24 to 27 ft. long, the largest being 46 by 51 inches, fell 
under the hammer at £1,600. 
Mahogany, like cedar and other timber of that class, 
is sold by the square foot of 1 inch in thickness, a consider- 
able allowance being made by the timber measurer from the 
total cubic contents for waste in conversion, and the sale 
measure is often 25 per cent, less than the 
actual contents of the log. West Indian 
mahogany, in order to get as much as 
possible out of the log, was often cut (see 
Fig. 26) with the sides fairly squared, but 
differing in dimensions. This is now not so often done, 
as the logs are much smaller than formerly. 
The City St. Domingo wood is generally identified by 
the stop adzing and small sizes, while the wood from Puerto 
Plata, on the north side of the island, is usually of larger 
size. Both are subject to serious heartshakes, but the colour 
is darker than the Cuba wood. The Cuba wood is known by 
the white chalk-like substance or white specks which fill the 
pores ; it is of firm, silky texture, not too hard, and is very 
cold to the touch, and both it and the St. Domingo wood 
are decidedly superior to African, and also to the Honduras 
wood for finished work ; but little is now obtainable, and 
only in small sizes, seldom over 12 to 14 inches a side, 
whilst the great widths of the African wood make it 
appreciated by the cabinet-maker or other user owing to the 
fewer join-ts required, and although coarser in grain, the 
French polisher, by the help of " filling," works up the 
