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Timber.

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the same material that is used to cover toy magnets. When made stiff it is an excellent cement for small articles. Opticians employ it for many of these purposes. I have also used it as a paint for marking initials on luggage, cutting out the letters in paper and dabbing the red stuff through.

Small Boxes for Specimens.-Cut the side of a cigar-box, or a strip of pasteboard, half through in three places, add two smaller pieces, like wings, one on each side, by means of a piece of gummed paper overlapping them, as in the picture. Any number of these may be carried like the leaves of a book, and when a box is wanted

they may be bent into shape, and by the adhe

rence of the moistened

gum-paper, can be made

into a box at a moment's notice. The shaded bor

der of the figure represents the gummed paper. Quills make convenient receptacles for minute specimens. They should be dressed (see " Quills "), anyd may be corked with a plug of wood or wax, or, for greater security, a small quill may be pushed, mouth forward, into a larger one, as into a sheath.

TIMBER.

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Green Wood.-To season Wood.-Green wood cannot be employed in carpentry, as it is very weak; it also warps, cracks, and becomes rotten : wood dried with too great a heat loses its toughness as well as its pliability : it becomes hard and brittle. Green wood is seasoned by washing out the sap, and then drying it thoroughly. The traveller's way of doing this by one rapid operation, is to dig a long trench and make a roaring fire in it; when the ground is burning hot, sweep the ashes away, deluge the trench with boiling water ; and in the middle of the clouds of steam that arise, throw in the log of wood, shovel hot earth over it, and leave it to steam and bake. A log thick enough to make an axletree may thus be somewhat seasoned in a single night. The log would be seasoned more thoroughly if it were saturated with