STUDY V. 2^2 



rives at a prodigious fize only on icy mountains, 

 and in the cold climates of Norway and Ruffia. 

 Pliny tells us, that the largeft piece of timber 

 which had ever been (een. at Rome, up to his 

 time, was a vaft log of fir, a hundred and twenty 

 feet long, and two feet fquare at both ends, which 

 Tiberius had conveyed from the cold mountains 

 of Voltolino, in Piedmont, and which Nero em- 

 ployed in his amphitheatre. You may judge, fays 

 he, what muft have been the length of the tree as 

 it grew when a cutting of it had fuch dimenfions. 

 However, as I believe that Pliny means Roman 

 feet, which are of the fame dimenfion with thofe 

 of the Rhine, we muft fubtradt from this meafure- 

 mcnt about a twelfth part nearly. He quotes, be- 

 fides, the fir mafl of the vefTel which brought from 

 Egypt the obeliik that Caligula ordered to be fet 

 up in the Vatican ; this maft was four fathoms in 

 circumference. 1 know not where it might have 

 grown. But I myfelf have feen firs in Rufîia, 

 compared to which thofe of our temperate climates 

 are mere twigs. Among others I remember to 

 have feen, between Peterfburg and Mofcôw, two 

 logs which exceeded in fize the largeft of our 

 mafts for fhips of war, though thefe confift of fe- 

 veral pieces. They were cut from the fame tree, 

 and ferved as mounting blocks at the gate of a 

 peafant's farm-yard. The boats which convey 

 provifions from Lake Ladoga to Peterfburg are 



not 



