274 
CAMELS FOR TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA, ETC. 
CAMELS FOR TEXAS AND CALIFORNIA. 
Capt. C. W. Webber, the author of “ Gold 
Mines of the Hila,” and recently in the United 
States’ service in Mexico, called at our office a few 
days since for the purpose of directing our atten¬ 
tion, and enlisting our efforts in favor of the importa¬ 
tion of camels, for the transportation of mails, pas¬ 
sengers, &c., throughout our south-western frontier. 
We have long thought favorably of this project, 
and that camels, equally with the best breeds of 
cattle, horses, sheep, and swine, should be intro¬ 
duced for such sections of this country as have a 
proper climate, and appropriate duties to require 
their labor. This is evidently the case with a large 
portion of the territory recently ceded by Mexico 
to us, and includes, also, a considerable portion of 
the prairies of Texas, and the southern portion of 
Oregon. Wherever the climate is sufficiently warm, 
as it usually is upon this continent, south of 36° 
of north latitude, and especially inland near the 
Pacific coast, where the soil is arid or sandy and 
the country open, camels may be used as beasts 
of burden to more advantage than any other 
quadruped. 
We therefore hope Capt. Webber maybe suc¬ 
cessful in his enterprise, and trust the proper energy 
and capital from our enterprising countrymen will 
not be wanting to carry this undertaking out to a 
full and triumphant result. We may with equal 
propriety embark in this, as formerly in the importa¬ 
tion of Merino, Saxon, Bakewell and Southdown 
sheep; Durham, Devon and Hereford cattle; the 
blood and Norman horse; the ass; and improved 
varieties of swine. 
CAUSE OF DECAY IN TIMBER-SEASON FOR 
FELLING. 
Considering the magnitude of the interests in¬ 
volved in the preservation of timber, it is surely a 
disgrace to us of the present day, that doubts 
should be as strong as ever concerning the true 
causes of its decay. In an absence of certainty as 
to these, for many years, attention has been turned 
away from the essential part of the inquiry, and 
directed merely to secondary points. The problem 
to be solved is, What causes the decay of timber ? 
In the first place, it is presumed that no one will 
dispute the fact that ancient timber lasted longer 
than modern. That being granted, we have only 
to ascertain what can have caused the difference. 
Our Anglo-Saxon forefathers knew nothing of bi¬ 
chloride of mercury, sulphate and pyrolignite of iron, 
chloride of zinc, nor creosote. There were no 
Kyans nor Burnetts, no Paynes nor Boucheries, in 
their days; yet, they perfectly understood the art 
of rendering wood imperishable, as is sufficiently 
attested by what remains of their works. The 
great, though forgotten architects, who fixed the 
wooden roof of Westminster Hall, in the time of 
Richard II., and those who erected the old country 
churches and corner castles of England, must have 
known much better than the architects of the pre¬ 
sent day how to prepare their timber; or their 
wood work would not have remained as sound as 
when it was put together by their artizans. 
As ancient practice is not sufficiently recorded, 
we can only look to the nature of the timber itself 
in order to learn the causes which hasten its decay. 
Foremost, among these, is its exposure to any moist 
atmosphere exceeding a temperature of 33° F.; and 
the decay will proportionably be hastened as the tem¬ 
perature of that atmosphere is increased. Timber, 
absolutely dry, would be unable to undergo decom¬ 
position at any appreciable rate. A piece of wood 
found at the back of one of the friezes, at Athens, 
by Lord Elgin, is as sound at present as it could 
have been in the days of Phidias, more than 2,000 
years ago. Even animal matters, rapidly as they 
putrify, are preserved for centuries in the absence 
of moisture. Travellers assure us that in the arid 
plains that stretch northwards beyond the Himalayan 
range, the corpses of men and the carcasses of ani¬ 
mals dry up instead of rotting. The Gaucho hangs 
his beef in the sun, and in the dry climate of the 
Pampas it hardens as so much hide, like which it 
may be kept for use. 
If then, mere dryness is sufficient to arrest the 
decay of animal matter, how much more effectual 
must be its action upon vegetable substances in 
which a natural tendency to rot is infinitely less 
inherent. Sawdust is but timber broken to pieces ; 
damp sawdust rots rapidly; dry sawdust will all 
but last forever. Charcoal, one of the most un¬ 
changeable forms of vegetable matter, is only timber 
from which the last trace of water has been expelled 
by heat. Absence of moisture is therefore the 
great cause of preservation, as its presence is that 
of decay. 
Complete dryness may be assumed to have been 
the cause of the durability of ancient timber. At 
least, in the present state of our information, we 
can refer it to nothing else ; and dryness is amply 
sufficient to account for it. In the opinion of one 
of the most experienced and philosophical of modern 
writers, the late Sir Samuel Bentham, dryness was 
the great object to be obtained in preparing timber 
for naval purposes. Drying houses were recom¬ 
mended by him; and during all the period of his 
employment as civil architect of the British navy, 
this distinguished officer never ceased to point 
out the indispensable necessity of securing the dry¬ 
ness of timber before all other things. To the art¬ 
ificial methods available for this purpose we need 
not here allude. What we have to deal with is the 
natural means of bringing it about. Those natural 
means are much more effectual than any others, 
and it is a question whether they can be superseded 
by any artificial method whatsoever. The means 
which trees possess of relieving themselves from 
moisture are their leaves, which serve as a very 
powerful pumping apparatus, incessantly drawing 
moisture from their interior, and giving it off to 
space. It is true that the same action which pro¬ 
duces a discharge of fluid from the surface of leaves 
has at certain seasons the counter effect of again 
charging the apparatus with more fluid, to replace 
that which is thrown off; but this happens only at 
certain seasons. In spring, a tree is in full force; 
the roots then draw fluid from the soil, the trunk 
draws it from the roots, leaves draw it from the 
trunk—and waste it; and this goes on so long as 
the soil is filled with the rains of spring—so long 
as vitality is active. But as the summer advances, 
the earth becomes dry, refuses the same abundant 
supply as before, and all vegetation slackens. The 
leaves, however, still go on, pump, pump, pump; 
