260 
TIMBEE 
already there by providing them with a warm and moist 
chamber, and the interior of the wood will almost certainly 
be destroyed. 
The human being who has contracted an infectious 
disease is kept apart from his fellows so as to prevent the 
spread of the disorder, yet decaying timber is too often 
left lying in the neighbourhood of sound timber, the 
danger of infection not being reaUzed ; the two cases are 
analogous, and decayed timber, being a very fruitful source 
of infection owing to the risk of the distribution of the 
fungus spores it contains, should be removed from the 
neighbourhood of sound timber or should be destroyed. 
As a rule the harder or denser woods are less liable to 
decay than those of a softer nature, but such is not always 
the case, as karri timber, which is, if anything, harder and 
denser than jarrah, is the more hable of the two to decay 
in damp situations, but both these are less liable than most 
of the fir and pine timbers. Sapwood is more hable to 
decay than heartwood, and in structural timbers is the 
first to decay. 
It has been pointed out that timber buried in the ground 
has generally a very long life, but there are exceptions to 
all rules, and a curious instance showing the difficulties 
incurred with timber in the ground has recently come 
before the author. The instance consisted of pitch pine 
piles with capping pieces of the same as a foundation to 
carry cranes and columns for a large foundry in alluvial 
deposit of considerable depth. The timber would have 
been creosoted were it not that there was risk of fire. As 
the ground was too low for shop floor level, the pile heads 
and caps stood up in some cases for 3 or 4 ft. above the 
original surface, and the ground was filled up with mixed 
material, chiefly clay and sand, but there were no ashes. 
Although the work has only been down about seven years, 
