130 THE LARCH. 



1 68 cubic feet of timber, at the extraordinary price of 

 3s. per foot, or ^25, 5s. for the tree, at the same time 

 purchasing also some other younger and smaller trees, 

 with which they built the Simon Taylor, West India- 

 man, which was unfortunately lost on her first voyage. 

 She was probably launched in 1820 or 1821, but the 

 exact date I have not been able to ascertain. 



Shortly after the above, a third vessel was built, a 

 brig of 1 7 1 tons, by a firm in Perth, entirely of the 

 Athole larch, and bore the name of the wood of which 

 she was built — the Larch. 



In some quarters a strong antipathy to larch for 

 all naval purposes existed, and it was not till within 

 the last fifty years that it was overcome. About 1820 

 a boatbuilder in Cullen, having seen or heard of the 

 suitability of larch for certain parts of a boat, ven- 

 tured, in order to introduce the wood, to put in one 

 timber into a boat he was building, and it having been 

 discovered by or pointed out to the fisherman for 

 whom it was being built, he gave peremptory orders 

 for its extraction, adding, " Put in willow, alder, or 

 spruce fir, or indeed anything but that dangerous, 

 dismal larick." 



About the year 1845 a ship was built at Dingwall 

 of larch grown on the Fowlis estate in Eoss-shire, first 

 named the Foivlis, and subsequently the Indestructible. 

 This vessel, after many years' coasting service, was at 

 last accidentally destroyed in the following manner : — 

 She was loaded with limeshell from a southern port, 

 and on her way north encountered a severe gale, which 



