258 
TIMBER 
hours, or a temperature of 40° C. (104° Fahr.) will destroy 
its vitality in one hour. Other fungi are, however, capable 
of resisting higher temperatures. 
Dry air is incapable of causing decomposition. If we 
can exclude humidity from the wood it will prevent the 
primary cause of decay. Any kind of wood kept absolutely 
air-tight will not decay, as, for instance, wood completely 
submerged in water. 
It was owing to absence of air and moisture that the 
mammoth was preserved for untold ages in the ice of the 
Kussian rivers, and the wonderful preservation of 
the wooden Egyptian coffins and statues for 5,000 or 
6,000 years is largely owing to the dryness of the 
Egyptian atmosphere. 
Timber buried in the ground has in most cases a very 
long life. In clay it is practically indestructible. 
The piled foundations of the ancient lake dwellings in 
our own and other countries are in fair condition after 
being in place for thousands of years ; the piled founda- 
tions of the great and important buildings of Venice, 
Amsterdam, and other cities have carried their loads for 
centuries. 
A cutting from a Memel pile recently taken out of the 
soft ground at Hull, now in the possession of the author, 
is as sound as when it was put down more than a hundred 
years ago. Another, from a small oak pile taken out of a 
river bed, which had probably been there a thousand years, 
is also quite sound. The oak foundation piles from the 
bridge constructed across the river Tyne by the Komans 
were, when taken out of the river bed forty years ago, 
found to be so little the worse after being buried eighteen 
centuries that pieces of furniture were made from them, 
and a piece of cypress wood in good condition was a few 
years back found in the New Orleans Drainage Canal, 
