CHAP, in S Y L V A 241 



well agree with the glew, as it, or is so easie to be 

 wrought : It is also excellent for beams, and other 

 timber-work in houses, being both light, and exceed- 

 ingly strong, and therefore of very good use for bars, 

 and bolts of doors, as well as for doors themselves, 

 and for the beams of coaches, a board of an inch and 

 half thick, will carry the body of a coach with great 

 ease, by reason of a natural spring which it has, not 

 easily violated. You shall find, that of old they made 

 carts and other carriages of it ; and for piles to 

 superstruct on in boggy grounds ; most of Venice, 

 and Amsterdam is built upon them, with so excessive 

 charge, as some report, the foundations of their 

 houses cost as much, as what is erected on them ; 

 there being driven in no fewer than 13659 great 

 masts of this timber, under the new Stadt-house of 

 Amsterdam. For scaffolding also there is none com- 

 parable to it ; and I am sure we find it an extra- 

 ordinary saver of oak, where it may be had at 

 reasonable price. I will not complain what an 

 incredible mass of ready money, is yearly exported 

 into the northern countries for this sole commodity, 

 which might all be saved were we industrious at 

 home, or could have them out of Virginia, there 

 being no country in the whole world stor'd with 

 better ; besides, another sort of wood which they call 

 cypress, much exceeding either fir or pine for this 

 purpose ; being as tough and springy as yew, and 

 bending to admiration ; it is also lighter than either, 

 and everlasting in wet or dry ; so as I much wonder, 

 that we enquire no more after it : In a word, not 

 only here and there an house, but whole towns, and 

 great cities are, and have been built of fir only ; nor 

 that alone in the north, as Mosco, &c. where the 



