Chap. 8.] WOOD FOR FUEL. 349 



charcoal is that obtained from the wood of young trees. 58 

 Square billets of wood, newly cut, are piled compactly together 

 with clay, and built up in the form of a chimney ; the pile is 

 then set fire to, and incisions are made in the coat of clay as it 

 gradually hardens, by the aid of long poles, for the purpose of 

 letting the moisture of the wood evaporate. 



The worst kind of all, however, both for timber and for 

 making charcoal, is the oak known as the " haliphloeos," 59 the 

 bark of which is remarkably thick, and the trunk of consider- 

 able size, but mostly hollow and spongy : it is the only one 

 of this species that rots while the tree is still alive. In 

 addition to this, it is very frequently struck by lightning, 

 although it is not so remarkably lofty in height: for this 

 reason it is not considered lawful to employ its wood for the 

 purposes of sacrifice. It is but rarely that it bears any acorns, 

 and when it does they are bitter : no animal will touch them, 

 with the sole exception of swine, and not even they, if they 

 can get any other food. An additional reason also for its ex- 

 clusion from all religious ceremonials, is the circumstance 

 that the fire is very apt to go out in the middle of the 

 sacrifice when the wood of it is used for fuel. 



The acorn of the beech, when given to swine, 60 makes them 

 brisk and lively, and renders the flesh tender for cooking, and 

 light and easy of digestion ; while, on the other hand, that of 

 the holm oak has the effect of making them thin, pallid, 

 meagre, and lumpish. The acorn of the quercus is of a broad 

 shape, and is the heaviest as well as the sweetest of them 

 all. According to Nigidius, the acorn of the cerrus occupies 

 the next rank to this, and, indeed, there is no acorn that 

 renders the flesh of swine more firm, though at the same time 

 it is apt to impart a certain degree of hardness. The same 

 author assures us also, that the acorn of the holm oak is a 

 trying diet for swine, unless it is given in very small quan- 



58 Pliny's account of making charcoal is derived from Theophrastus, 

 B. iii. c. 10. Fee remarks that it differs little from the method adopted in 

 France at the present day. 



59 The Quercus Hispanica, probably, of Lamarck, of which Fee thinks 

 the Quercus pseudo-suber of Desfontaines is a variety ; it is found in 

 Greece and on the shores of the Mediterranean, near Gibraltar. The Greek 

 name signifies the " sea cork- tree." 



60 The statement here given as to the effect of beech-mast on swine, is 

 destitute, Fee remarks, of all foundation. If fed upon it, their flesh will 

 naturally be of a soft, spongy nature. 



