The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1888-11-01
Mining for Valuable Timber.

Dennisville, Cape May County, n.
j., is reached by stage. The village is
hidden away in the pines. Around it
are a number of small but good farms.
Twelve hundred souls endure its seclu-
sion and quiet. No one can tell how
long the town has existed; the old in
habitapts say it was always old.
1t was prosperous town during the
Revolutionary war and after. Hun
dreds of American ships were built on
Dennis Creek, which flows through IL.
Its thriftiness is now reminiscence,
and the people just make shift" They
keep up the appearance of respectable
ity by liberal use of whitcwash.
Nearly every house in the place has
been incrusted with lime. while tho
barns and fences do not relieve the mo.
notony. Mining ont logs has been the
occasional industry of the place ever
since Dennisvillc existed. Several
thousand acres of swamp land follows
the course of Dennis Creek, beneath
whose vegetable deposit are buried
millions of feet of lumber. Giant ce-
dar trees, laid low by winds thousand
years ago, are mined ont, and the aro-
matte wood is valuable for shingles and
cooper's stayes.
The manner in which these logs are
secured has not its parallel in mining
operations. \ long spear is used to
locate the logs, which are generally
several feet under the surface. After
the trunk has been probcd the miucr
,an tell how much of it is sound. The
deposit is removed and the solid part
Is separated by saving. he oXcayg.
tion is gradually filled with water, and
the moment the log is released from
the buried part il floats TO the top with
the lightness of cork. In coming M
the log Will turn o,cr, always coming
bottom up. Frequently logs have been
exhumcd that have been fifty feet long
and four in diameter, giants that were
fit to keep company with the holy
brotherhood of Lebanon. The AVERAGE
log is twenty feet, with diameter of
two. Some of the miners Immediately
tear of tho outer bark and smell the
dry and aromatic log. The odor indi-
Gates its possible age, and few can tell
whether it was blown down 10y the
wind or fell from age.
The only wood buried here is tho
white cedar, Thuja Sracracdalis II is
the most valuable timber found in
America. It is fine grained, easily
split and strongly aroma. Ii is used
for frames of buildings and especially
for shingles. Its charcoal il valuable
for gunpowdcr and fine lampblack can
be made from its smoke. The years
that it has lam underground have I'M
proved its weight and aroma When
exposed to the air the tihcrs become
touch and the wood hard. The vcncr-
able-looking proprietor Of the Gatil-
NOR House will tell You his shingles
have Econ on the old inn for fifty years.
and they are harder to-day than when
they were tackled on the raj crs Fences
of new cedar that were not exposed
half the time, have long ago gone to
rot.
The old men of ID nnisvilic shake their
heads when YOU ask them how many
years ago it was when the buried cedars
nodded TO the breeze. Tho old deacon
will tell you it was when Solomon was
praising the cedars of Lebanon TO the
Queen of Shebu. The age of these
buried trees las caused much spccu-
lation, and it is given by several author
tiles of national roputo that the trees
must have grown many thousand years
ago. In the forestry report for 1877
many authortics are quoted, and they
agree in the matter OF time. C0pe
Mdu letter.