shrinks very little, it rarely warps, and stands exposure to the weather a long time without opening with surface shakes, or sustaining any apparent damage.
African timber, possessing, as it does, so many good properties, is employed in ship-building for beams, keelsons, riding bitts, stanchions, &c., and in a variety of ways; but in civil architecture, and in the domestic arts, it is only sparingly used, on account of its weight.
This timber is brought upon the market in very roughly-hewn logs, intended, no doubt, to be square, but varying considerably from that form, and taking, generally, the most irregular shapes (Fig. 23).
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/99/Timber_and_Timber_Trees%2C_Native_and_Foreign_-_FIG._23.png/400px-Timber_and_Timber_Trees%2C_Native_and_Foreign_-_FIG._23.png)
FIG. 23.
Sometimes they are angular, at other times they have a thick and a thin edge, resembling, in some degree, a "feather-edge" board; again, we find they are neither tapered to the natural growth of the tree, nor made parallel longitudinally, but vary in thickness in that direction, leading to a most serious waste of the raw material in the neglect to preserve the fullest-sized square log obtainable from the tree.
It will naturally be inferred that, being thus awkwardly shaped, it is the most difficult of all timber to measure correctly.