Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/143

XX.] quarter to half an inch in diameter are found upon the surface, which often penetrate deeply and in all directions. Such logs have generally a dull appearance, and are invariably brittle and of inferior quality. This defect is, I consider, indicative of an unhealthy if not dead state of the tree, before it was cut down. The ravages of the worm are detrimental to the strength and value of the timber, and logs so affected are not fit to be reduced to plank for use on bottoms of ships.

Teak, notwithstanding its defects, is extensively used for ship-building in this countiy, in place of English and other Oaks, African and Sabicu timber, &c., &c., and the objection that was formerly made against its use in ships of war, as being unsuitable, on account of its liability to splinter if struck by a shot, is no longer allowed to stand in the way of its employment.

Teak timber is also used, to a moderate extent, for ship-building in the arsenals of foreign countries.

The quantities of Teak timber received here annually from Moulmein have hitherto been very large, and so greatly in excess of that which it was calculated a few years ago could be drawn from the Tenasserim forests, that fears have been entertained the supply from that source must soon fail, and we notice a falling off in the shipments. This has, however, been supplemented by the shipment of considerable quantities of Teak from Rangoon, and it seems probable that that port will soon become the chief timber station for the export of this important article of commerce.

I do not, with this new source of supply open to us,