BOOK XVI. xxiii. 56 59 



XXIII. \Ve must not omit to statc that with the UseofpUrh 

 Greeks also the name of ' Hve pitch ' is given to ofThips. " 

 pitch which has been scraped off the bottom of sea- 

 going ships and mixed with wax — as hfe leaves 

 nothing untried — and which is much more efhcacious 

 for all the purposes for whicli the pitches and resins 

 are serviceable, this being because of the additional 

 hardness of the sea salt. 



An opcning is made in a pitch-tree on the side Wai/sof 

 towards the sun, not by means of an incision but by ?*"*"^p*'<^ 

 a wound made by removing the bark, making an 

 aperture at most two feet long, so as to be at least 

 eighteen inches from the ground. Also the body 

 of the tree itself is not spared, as in other cases, 

 because the chips of wood are valuable ; but the 

 chips from nearest the surface are most esteemcd, 

 those from deeper in giving the resin a bitter flavour. 

 Afterwards all the moisture from the whole tree 

 flows together into the wound ; and so also in the 

 case of the torch-tree. When the Hquid stops 

 flowing, an opening is made in a similar manner out 

 of another part of the tree and then another. After- 

 wards the whole tree is felled and the pith of the 

 timber is burnt. In the same way in Syria also they 

 strip the bark off the turpentine-tree, there indeed 

 stripping it from the branches and roots as well, 

 although the resin from these parts is not valued 

 highly. In Macedonia they bum the whole of the 

 male larch but only the roots of the female tree. 

 Theopompus wrote that in the territory of the 

 Apolloniates a mineral pitch is found that is not 

 inferior to that of Macedonia. The best pitch is 

 everywhere obtained from trees growing in sunny 

 places with a north-east aspect, whereas that from 



425 



