PROPERTIES AND USES OF TIMBER. 



379 



ing, and one which the larch possesses in an eminent 

 degree. As an example of this, I may mention, 

 that if a target be made of larch-timber, properly- 

 seasoned, and of the thickness of ship-plank, and 

 fired at with shot of any description, it will be found 

 that the balls form a clean hole, as if pierced with 

 the auger of the carpenter, and without a vestige of 

 splinter, the wood being carried off exactly to the 

 size of the ball. I can make but slight pretensions 

 to judge of what may be advantageous and condu- 

 cive to the strength of the Koyal Navy, but I am in- 

 clined to think that this last quality, joined to the 

 other known properties of larch- timber, would point 

 it out as at least worthy of trial ^. 



Whatever may be its capabilities, and the chance 

 of its introduction into the Royal Navy, larch is 

 well ascertained to be of great value in building 

 merchant vessels. I have seen several built en- 



* I recollect of having read a letter from a naval officer to 

 the Admiralty Board, describing a naval engagement (and my 

 impression is that it was the letter of Lord Nelson, commu- 

 nicating the victory of the Nile), in which it is stated, that 

 more of the men were killed by splinters from the different 

 places of the ship, hit by the enemy's shot, than fell by their 

 balls. If larch, possessing the quality I have mentioned, be 

 found to answer for building ships of war, this circumstance 

 alone will shew the importance of introducing it. 



