248 S Y L V A BOOK ii 



be separated from the bodies of the trees by devouring 

 time, or that they are the only materials, out of 

 which tar can be extracted : For there are in these 

 tracts, millions of trees which abound with the same 

 sort of knots, and full of turpentine fit to make tar : 

 But the labour of felling these trees, and of cutting 

 out their knots, would far exceed the value of the 

 tar ; especially, in countries where work-men are so 

 very dear : But those knots above-mention'd, are 

 provided to hand, without any other labour, than 

 the gathering only. There are sometimes found of 

 those sort of pine-trees, the lowest part of whose 

 stems towards the root is as full of turpentine, as the 

 knots ; and of these also may tar be made : But such 

 trees being rarely found, are commonly preserved to 

 split into can die- wood ; because they will be easily 

 riven out into any lengths, and scantlings desir'd, 

 much better than the knots. There be, who pretend 

 an art of as fully impregnating the body of any living 

 pine-tree, for six or eight foot high ; and some have 

 reported that such an art is practis'd in Norway : 

 But upon several experiments, by girdling the tree 

 (as they call it) and cutting some of the bark round, 

 and a little into the wood of the tree, six or eight 

 foot distant from the ground, it has yet never suc- 

 ceeded ; whether the just season of the year were not 

 observ'd, or what else omitted, were worth the dis- 

 quisition ; if at least there be any such secret amongst 

 the Norwegians, Swedes, or any other nation. Or 

 tar, by boiling it to a sufficient height, is pitch made : 

 And in some places where rosin is plentiful, a fit 

 proportion of that, may be dissolv'd in the tar whilst 

 it is boiling, and this mixture is soonest converted to 

 pitch ; but it is of somewhat a differing kind from 



