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with deciduous grown timbers where heartwood is always 
accepted, and so contrary to the nature of evergreen trees, 
inchiding blue gum^ and stringy bark." 
Spikes and nails are not easily driven into Australian 
hardwoods. 
Westeen Australia. 
Jarrah {Eucalyptus marginata) (Fig. 30) is the principal 
hardwood of the colony. The tree attains a height of 
120 ft. and over and sometimes 50 ft. to the first branch. 
Something like 8,000,000 acres adjacent to the coast from 
Albany to Perth are covered by jarrah forests. The best 
timber is grown on hill ranges. The wood is very like a red 
brick when newly cut, but darkens to a reddish brown colour. 
It is hard, dense and strong, generally very straight in the 
grain and with but little sap. The annual rings are close 
and, as a rule, clearly defined. It is classed in Lloyd's 
third list of shipbuilding timbers. T^he timber is used in 
the colony for most kinds of substantial work wherever 
lightness is not a consideration. It makes excellent shingles 
for roofs, which last many years. Not liable to suffer from 
rot when built into masonry or let into the ground, it is 
considered the best timber in the colony for telegraph poles, 
having a life, under favourable circumstances, of from 
twenty-five to thirty years. It makes excellent street 
paving, for which it has been largely used in Great Britain, 
and much piling and timber quay work has been done with 
this timber at Hartlepool, Great Yarmouth, and other places, 
and it has proved very satisfactory. Owing to its long life 
it is an excellent timber for railway sleepers ; a plank 
examined after being in use on a bridge for forty-tbree 
years was found to be still in good condition. 
^ The term "gum" is generally applied iu Australia to those 
eucalypti with smooth bark. a 
