134 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
We need hardly describe our surprise at finding so ignoble a 
tree converted into so elegant a material ; nor is it necessary 
that we should draw the attention of our English cabinet- 
makers to this beautiful wood, for our guide told us that 
several have already bid a high price for the plank which we 
were examining, and certainly a more beautiful specimen has 
never come under our notice. The Huon pine, we are told, is 
used for veneer, and costs in the colony about sixteen shillings 
per hundred superficial feet. 
Returning to cast another glance at the beautiful furniture 
into which this wood is manufactured, our attention is arrested 
by various other kinds, of which the planks are of gigantic 
proportions ; and, on expressing our surprise at this, we receive 
from our conductor the following information : — - 
“The three most remarkable specimens of Tasmanian wood 
are too large for exhibition even in this building, but they may 
be seen in the Horticultural Society’s gardens. There may be 
found planks of white gum (Eucali/jrfus vim/in alls), blue gum 
(E. globulus), and stringy-bark ( E . gi get n teus), varying in 
length from eighty, ninety, or one hundred feet, to one enor- 
mous spar three hundred and fifty feet in height ! ” 
What an idea this imparts of the towering trees which con- 
stitute the forests of Tasmania ! 
The use, we are told, of these descriptions of wood is chiefly 
shipbuilding, and more especially are they adapted for the 
“ knees ” of vessels, * for which purpose their great strength 
renders them very valuable. Indeed, one piece of “blue 
gum,” in excellent preservation, is exhibited which has been 
forty-five years in use. 
“ But what,” we ask, “ is the use of that great canoe ? ” 
“ That is a portion of the paraphernalia of the sperm-whale 
fishery; and here we have the other appurtenances of this 
industry : the instruments of destruction, paintings of the - 
ships employed in the trade, the casks in which the oil is 
stored, the ‘ head-matter ’ in a bottle, the teeth and jaws of 
the sperm whale.” 
Let us here remark, en passant, that throughout the Colonial 
Courts we could not help admiring the pains taken by the 
exhibitors to display in a perfect manner the whole of any 
industry ; and we shall often have occasion to notice the 
completeness with which each has been arranged, to the 
advantage of those who desired to find in the Exhibition some- 
thing beyond a mere show, and to the great credit of the 
exhibitors. 
But we must leave the sperm-whale fishery and the huge 
* Hickory-wood is the kind employed for “ knees.’ 
