CHAPTER XVI. 
WHOLE TIMBER CARGOES. 
Tue handling of cargoes of timber in bulk is attended by 
certain difficulties, in that the pieces are awkward and cum- 
bersome to handle, and that the process of sorting to sizes 
and marks is slow and tedious. So productive of delay is 
this operation, that it is often the practice to discharge an 
entire ship’s cargo of, say, deals, on to the quay in a solid 
heterogeneous mass, and defer the sorting until the whole 
has been discharged. Heavy logs have necessarily to be 
handled singly, and it is the custom to differentiate between 
quays for the reception of hardwood (logs of teak, greenheart, 
beech, oak, elm, etc.), and those for soft wood (deals, planks, 
and battens and smaller scantlings of spruce or Baltic 
timber). 
Timber may be stacked on suitable storage grounds, 
preferably situated some little distance back from the quay, 
either under cover or in the open. Logs are very often 
‘immersed in ponds and left to lie afloat. 
CONVEYORS. 
Conveyors have been introduced in many cases for the 
handling of cargoes of soft-wood, not always successfully, 
Sut sometimes, where circumstances are favourable, with 
quite satisfactory results. The miscellaneousness of most 
soft-wood cargoes is the principal difficulty. An ordinary 
sargo may consist of two to three hundred thousand pieces, 
varying in size from planks, 11 ins. by 3 ins. or 4 ins., down 
to i-inch slating battens or strips, with lengths ranging up 
to 20 feet or so. Provided there is sufficient extent of space