276 
TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [chap. 
silky appearance, and is, on this account, in great 
favour with carpenters. It is very valuable for every 
description of joinery, where lightness may be desirable, 
and may be applied with advantage to many ornamental 
uses in both naval and civil architecture. For more 
substantial works of construction, it is not, however, con¬ 
sidered to be so well adapted, as it is not sufficiently 
strong or durable for employment in them. 
In every season’s felling of the Yellow Pine trees, 
the straightest, longest, and finest pieces are sorted out 
and dressed or hewn nearly to the octagonal form ; they 
are then called “ Inch masts,” and these rough spars 
serve for employment for the lower masts, yards, and 
bowsprits of ships. 
It is essential to the qualification of the stick for 
mast, yard, or bowsprit purposes, that it be straight, 
sound, free from sudden bends and injurious knots. 
Further, it is important that the grain be straight, and 
especially it should be free from any spiral turn, as timber 
of that growth is liable to warp or twist out of shape 
after being worked. Nearly all the lower masts, yards, 
and bowsprits of large ships are made of Yellow Pine; 
but, for the lower masts of small vessels, and generally 
for the top-mast, topsail-yards, and other light spars 
where the strain is often sudden and great, this descrip¬ 
tion of Pine is not strong enough, and is therefore seldom 
employed. 
The employment of Yellow Pine for large spars is 
chiefly owing to the difficulty experienced in obtaining 
the stronger Pines of sufficiently large dimensions, and 
it is only since the introduction of the “ Douglas Pine J ’ 
spars from the Oregon district of Columbia, that they 
have been in some measure superseded. Still, the 
Yellow Pine wood, when made into masts, has gene- 
