_Ebony_ is the name given to the wood of several different trees, which agree in being dark-coloured, dense, and durable; it is used for inlaying and for making rules or scales, as not being liable to warp. It is an excellent wood for turning; but, except for these purposes, it is less in request now than formerly, when it was much used in cabinet-making. _Lignum Vitæ_ is the wood of the _Guaiacum officinale_, a large tree indigenous in the West Indies. This wood is the hardest and heaviest known, and can only be worked in the lathe. It is much used for making the _sheaves_, or pulleys of blocks used in shipping, and for friction-rollers, &c. There are various foreign woods which, from their beautiful grain and varied tints, are used in cabinet-making. But as these woods are too valuable to be used solid, they are sawed into thin leaves, called _veneers_, which are glued down on a backing of ordinary mahogany. The principal of these fancy woods are-- _Rose-wood_, which is produced by a tree a native of Brazil. This wood is much used for furniture, both as a veneer, and solid for legs of tables, chairs, &c. _King-wood_ is also the produce of Brazil; it is a dark chocolate wood, veined with fine black veins. _Beef-wood_ comes from New Holland; is of a pale-red even tint, and intensely hard and heavy. It is used for inlaying and bordering. _Tulip-wood_ is a wood of a clouded red and yellow colour, and very hard, and used for bordering to larger woods. The tree is unknown to our botanists. _Zebra-wood_ is a large-sized tree, and abundant enough to be used as a veneer in large furniture, like rose-wood: it is more curious than elegant. _Satin-wood_ is well known for its glossy yellowish tint, from which it derives its name; there are two varieties. _Maple_, from our own indigenous tree, is a very elegant wood, of a light colour, or else, near the root, variegated with knots and twisted grain. It is much used in fancy work. FOOTNOTES: [4] The Mines of Bolanos, in Mexico, are supplied with timber from the adjacent mountains by a slide similar to that of Alpnach. It was constructed by M. Floresi, a gentleman well acquainted with Switzerland. CHAPTER VI. THE WOOD-WORK. CARPENTRY. Having thus briefly noticed the principal kinds of timber, and some of the modes of bringing it to market, we have in the present chapter to trace the wood through the various processes whereby it becomes part and parcel of a house. Sawing Timber. When a timber-tree is felled, the branches, arms, and boughs, are cut off, and the bark stripped, this being valuable for many purposes. The trunk is then sawed square, and again cut into _planks_, _deals_, _battens_, &c., as the different-sized boards into which it is reduced are called. Teak and mahogany are imported into this country in _logs_, distinguished from the long beams known technically as _timber_, by their width and thickness being considerable in proportion to their length.