The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1885-08-01
Australasian Forests.

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mains unexplored that the approximate area
of its forest lands cannot be even conjec-
tured. One thing is certain, however, and
that is, that much smaller portion of its
surface, relatively speaking, is wooded than
was the case on the North American con-
tinent when it was first colonized by Euro
peans. Nevertheless, it and the neighbor-
ing islands of Tasmania and New Zealand
contain immense forests of valuable timber
for both constructive and ornamental pur-
poses.
There are $50 varieties of the Eacalyp-
tus, or gum tree, some of them attaining a
gigantic height, as, for example, the anayg-
dazina, which has been known to reach an
altitude of 480 feet. The specific gravity
of the rostrata, or red gum, which is large
ly used for railway sleepers, nearly equals
that of the oak, while it is capable of sus-
tanning a much greater pressure to the
square inch than either oak or teak. In
point of durability the harder varieties of
the Eucalyptus will last four times as long
as the former Many of the Australian
trees, as, for example, the Eucalyptus bo-
tlyoides, the Cedr Ella tooaa, the black
wood, and the Frenela endticherd, or cy-
press pine, and the numerous indigenous
cedars, are beautiful in grain and color, and
take fine polish.
The Kauri pine of New Zealaud, which,
with diameter at the base ranging from
10 to 20 feet, attains to the height of 160
feet, and often presents columnar trunk
of 100 feet without branch, ismuch priced
for its timber by the ship-builder, the
miner, the railway engineer, and the cabi-
net-maker What renders it exceptionally
valuable is that it exudes a gum almost
equal to copal, the choicer qualities of
which will sometimes command from S594
to $3.50 per ton in the London market.
The rinau, or red pine, an ornamental as
we'll as useful timber, some of it resembling
rosewood, though of lighter brown color,
is largely used in the manufacture of furni-
ture. With the totara, durable and
clean-grained wood, not unlike cedar in
appearance, the Maoris made their largest
canoes, and almost invariably constructed
the palisading of their spas"
The forest trees of Western Australia
claim special attention on account of their
useful and valuable properties. Among
these may be mentioned the tuart Euca-
lyptus gomphocephalG), an extremely hard,
heavy and close-grained wood, which fur
nishes the strongest timber known, its
transverse strength per square inch being
2.701 as compared with the English oak
which is 2.117, or the Indian teak. which
is 2203 Hence it is extrememely valua-
BILE for ship-building purposes. The karrl
Eucalyptus diUersicoIor), also highly
priced for its timber, attains to colossal
dimensions, sometimes measuring 60 feet
in circumference at the base, while its tall
and shapely trunk rises to the height OF
800 feet without single limb. The jar
rah Eucalyptus n,drginata), which re-
sists successfully the attacks of both the
white ant and the Teredo naraliS, is un-
surpassed for the durability of its timber.
Specimens of ,jarrah piles after being ex-
posed between wind and water for over
forty years, are still found to be in an al
most perfect state of preservation.
According to the director of the botani-
cal gardens at Sydney, no country has been
favored by nature with greater variety
and abundance of trees yielding strong
beautiful and durable timbers than the
colony of New South Wales. Its magnif-
cent forests contain woods valuable alike
to the cabinet-maker and the ship-builder,
including such timhers as the different
species Of the Eucalyptus, the red cedar
turpentine, rosewood, mountain-ash and
tulip-wood, most of which are beautiful in
grain, rich in color and susceptible of a
high polish
Queensland is richly endowed with i'm
mense tracts of forest lands, furnishing
large quantities of valuable timber, and
indirectly supplying the soil with an abun-
dance of rain.
The enormous fg-trees and gigantic
Eucalypti tower aloft and spread out theil
great arms, festooned with vines and flow
ering parasites, which throw themselves
over every spreading branch, and deck ii
with their varied and brilliant colors; the
tall pine trees shoot up their straight stems
to great height while the cedar, the
myrtle, the rosewood and tamarind trees
display their rich and green foliage in every
variety of shade.