480 ON USEFUL AND BOOK I. 



the propriety of devoting a few hundred acres of the na- 

 tional forests to the cultivation of the larch, either bent 



only consume to a calx, as stones, &c. in the furnace, by the means of other 

 wdod ; nor will it even then burn and become as a coal, but slowly and after a long 

 time will be consumed. The reason is, because it has in its substance very little of 

 the elements of fire and air ; but with water and earth it is replete ; and it has no 

 pores by which the fire may enter to dissolve its texture. This wood will not soon 

 decay ; and on account of its ponderosity water cannot sustain it ; so that when it 

 is to be transported, it is placed either in vessels or on rafts of fir. The first dis- 

 covery of this timber happened thus : When the army of the deified Caesar was 

 near the Alps, he commanded the inhabitants to shew him a safe passage and to 

 conduct him over those mountains ; there was a fortified castle, called Larignum ; 

 and those that were therein, confiding in its natural strength, refused to obey his 

 command. The emperor, therefore, ordered it to be attacked. Before the gate 

 of the castle was a tower, constructed, like a funeral pile, with beams of this wood 

 placed alternately transverse ; from the top of which they annoyed the assailants 

 with stakes and stones. When it was observed, that they had no other weapons 

 than wooden darts, and that they could not throw them far from the walls by reason 

 of their weight, orders were given to approach with faggots and burning fascines., 

 and pile them against the tower. The soldiers quickly obeyed ; and the flames 

 from the faggots ascending to a great height round the tower made it believed^ 

 that the whole mass was consumed ; but when the fire abated and was extinguished, 

 the tower appeared unhurt. Csesar, struck with admiration, then ordered it to be 

 assaulted with the missile engines ; upon which the country people, being affrighted, 

 surrendered. It was then demanded of them, where this timber, which remained 

 unhurt by fire, grew ; and they shewed these trees, of which in that place there is 

 great abundance. From the castle of Larignum, therefore, this tree takes its name. 

 This timber is brought by the river Po to Ravenna, to supply the colonies of 

 Fano, Pesaro, Ancona, and the other municipal cities in that district : if it could 

 conveniently be brought to Rome, it would be of great utility in building; for in 

 case it could not be used in all parts, at least it might be disposed in the projec- 

 tions about the eaves of the insular buildings, and thereby greatly contribute to 

 secure them from the danger of fire ; for this wood will neither flame, nor will it 

 burn like a coal." Newton's Vitriwius, page 40. 



