517. This timber, like the preceding, is a native of Canada and the northern districts of the United States. It is said to have been first introduced into this country by the Earl of Weymouth, hence the name "Weymouth pine." It obtained the name "white pine" from the perfect whiteness of the wood when freshly exposed. The tree grows in almost all varieties of soil between the parallels of latitude 43° and 47°; but attains its greatest dimensions in the upper part of New Hampshire, the State of Vermont, and near the source of the river St. Lawrence. Mr. Brown measured many of the trees as they lay felled on the ground, and taking a number of them, he found the stems to average 150 feet long by 2 feet 9 inches diameter at 5 feet up from the bottom, and some he found that measured 210 feet long, with stems from 5 to 10 feet in diameter, at 4 feet up from the bottom; and on counting the annual layers on the stumps he found them to range between 350 and 425, which may be taken as representing the years of their age.

The timber is exported in logs often more than 2 feet square and 30 feet in length.

The Weymouth pine is one of the largest and most useful of the American pines, and makes excellent masts. The wood is light, soft, and free from knots, easily wrought, and very durable in the comparatively dry climate of America when exposed to air and sun.

The wood is much used by the joiner for mouldings and other work where a clean straight-grained wood is desirable; but it is not so durable in this country as the Baltic pine, nor is it fit for large timbers, being very liable to the dry rot, and it swells in damp weather. It holds glue very well, but is bad for retaining nails.

The wood has a peculiar odour; the colour when seasoned is a brownish yellow, and the texture is more nearly uniform than that of any other of the pine species. The annual rings are not very distinct. It is much used for models and patterns for casting from by the founder, also for some kinds of furniture, and for boxes, owing to its light weight and the boards cut from it being procurable in large widths; but its softness renders it unfit for many purposes where it might otherwise be employed.

White pine is in great demand as a good building material in the eastern and northern states of America, being almost the only kind in use for the framework and joinery of houses, and in the form called clapboards and shingles to cover the roofs. These wooden houses are said to last about twelve or fifteen years. It is also extensively used in the construction of the timber bridges so common in America. The bridge over the Delaware at Trenton (Art. 335), and the celebrated bridges over the Schuylkill (Art. 338) were formed of this timber