37^ The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



river, and roughly squared into logs varying from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. It is 

 floated down in enormous rafts, the logs being bound together with willows and 

 hazel boughs. These rafts are manned by a large crew, many of whom bring their 

 wives with them to cook for the party, sleeping huts are erected on the raft, and it 

 becomes to all intents and purposes a little floating village, which is frequently three 

 months in making the voyage down the river." 



This larch is now shipped to London in some quantity for various purposes, 

 and has been considerably used for piles in the Dover harbour works, and elsewhere. 

 Mr. D. J. Morgan of Morgan Gellibrand and Company informs me that it is one of 

 the most durable timbers that can be used, but so hard that when it is being sawn 

 water is poured on the saw to keep it from heating, and this is probably the reason 

 why it is not much used in England. He informs me that all the lighters at Onega 

 were built of larch timbers, which lasted a very long time, and that when an old 

 house at Archangel, which had been built on a foundation of larch logs, was pulled 

 down, they were found to be quite sound after lying on the ground for possibly a 

 hundred years. The experiments which have been made with it in the quays at the 

 Surrey Commercial Docks, where the wood was continually wet and dry, have proved 

 the lasting power of this wood, which, from what I have seen of it, is much closer 

 in the grain than English-grown larch. But Mr. G. Cartwright, engineer of the 

 Grimsby Docks, tells me that though he has no actual personal experience of its use, 

 it is considered inferior to the best English larch, as indeed its lower price would 

 imply, and inferior in strength and durability under water to English oak, greenheart, 

 jarrah, or even to Danzig red fir, and that for constructional purposes he would 

 consider its value less than half that of large oak. 



Messrs. Crundall and Company of Dover inform me that Messrs. Pearson and 

 Sons have used a large quantity of larch deals for their block moulds, and for other 

 purposes where much wear and rough usage is entailed, and the wood has given 

 entire satisfaction. I purchased from Messrs. Howard Bros, and Company of 

 London a long clean log of this tree, from north Russia, in order to compare it 

 with that of home-grown larch, and find the wood is very slowly grown, there being 

 fifteen rings in an inch of radius. The heartwood is less red and apparently much 

 less resinous than that of the European larch. My carpenter reports that when 

 free from knots it works as well as some red deal, and he considers it very well 

 suited for the roofs of plant houses. Its present value is from ^11 to ^13 per 

 standard. m J_ £ \ 



