406 THE LAECH. 



other trees are in their pride, it is of a dingy, lifeless hue; 

 in autumn of a spiritless unvaried yellow ; and in winter 

 it is still more lamentably distinguished from every other 

 deciduous tree of the forest : for they seem only to sleep ; 

 but the Larch appears absolutely dead." 



In its native haunts, however, the Alps, and other 

 mountains of central Europe, it occupies an important 

 position, growing abundantly in the chasms and ravines, 

 especially on the north sides of the mountains, and striving 

 to impart to these lonely regions the solemn character with 

 which the Silver Fir clothes the south. It here rises to 

 the height of eighty or a hundred feet, with a trunk from 

 three to four feet in diameter. As it grows naturally on 

 the Apennines, it was known to the Eomaus, and is 

 repeatedly mentioned by Pliny as a lofty deciduous tree, 

 valuable for the strength and durability of its timber, but 

 worthless as fuel, its wood being not convertible into 

 charcoal, and as uninflammable as a stone. " We read," 

 says Evelyn, " of beams of no less than a hundred and 

 twenty feet in length made out of this goodly tree, which 

 is of so strange a composition that it will hardly burn. 

 Yet the coals thereof were held far better than any other 

 for the melting of iron, and the locksmith. There is 

 abundance of this Larch timber in the buildings at Venice, 

 especially about the palaces in Piazza San Marco. Xor 

 did they only use it in houses, but in naval architecture 

 also. The ship mentioned by Witsen to have been found 

 not long since in the l!^umidian Sea twelve fathoms under 

 water, was chiefly built of this timber and Cypress, both 

 reduced to that induration and hardness as greatly to resist 

 the fire and the sharpest tool ; nor was anything perished 

 of it, though it had lain above a thousand and four 

 hundred years submerged. Tiberius, we find, built that 

 famous bridge to his l^aumachia with this wood ; and it 

 seems to excel for beams, doors, windows, and masts of 

 ships : it resists the worm. Being driven into the ground, 

 it is almost petrified, and will support an incredible weight : 



