298 Major-General Roy's Account of the 



cured; with this farther precaution, that by trufTIiig them, 

 they Ihould be rendered perfectly inflexible, a clrcumilance not 

 before attended to. 



As fome difficulty had been found in procuring well-feafoncd 

 Pine -wood of fufficient length, and perfectly free from knots, 

 for the intended purpole; therefore Sir Joseph Banks had 

 early applied to the Admiralty for affiilnnce in this refped: ; 

 and forthwith obtained an order to be furniflied with what we 

 might have occafion for, fronn his Majefty's yard at Deptford, 

 where an old New-England maft, and aUo one of Riga wood, 

 were fpeedily cut up for our ufe. 



New-England white Pine is lighter, lefs liable to warp, and 

 lefs affected by moifture, than Riga red wood. But the New-, 

 England maft, when it came to be very minutely examined, was 

 found to be too much wounded by lliot-holes in fome parts, 

 or too much decayed or knotty in others, to afford us a fuffi- 

 ciency. This being the calc we had recourfe to the Riga 

 wood, wbich was indeed extremely fmooth and beautiful; and 

 fo perfectly ftraight-gralned, that a fibre of it, when lifted up, 

 might be drawn, like a thread, almofl from one end to the 

 other. 



It had been in contemplation, to make the rods of twenty- 



iive or thirty i&tl in length ; and one of the former dimenfions 



;Was aicually conllructed : but tliis being found to be rather too 



'Unwieldy, it was judged bell: to content ourfelves with thofe of 



about twenty feet. 



Different opinions have been entertained with regard to the bed 

 mode of applying rods in meaiuremen.t ; fome contending tijat 

 contads, or that of butting the end of one rod againft the end of 

 the other, is the befl ; while others (with more probability of 



being 



