LARCH, 



97 



believe. In good soil many of the crooks would be 

 of suflficient size in twenty years to begin the sup- 

 ply, if properly thinned out. In a forest of larch 

 containing many thousand loads, and which had 

 been untouched by any builder, we have seen the 

 greatest difficulty in prociuing crooks for one small 

 brig. It is only on very steep ground, and where 

 the tree has been a little upset after planting, 

 that any good crooks ai'e found. From the rather 

 greater diameter required of larch timbers, and also 

 from the natm-e of the fibre of the wood, we should 

 suppose that steam bending of larch timbers would 

 scarcely be followed, even as a dernier res sort. 



Larch, from its great lateral toughness, particularly 

 the root, and from its lightness, seems better adapted 

 for the construction of shot-proof vessels than any 

 other timber ; and opposed end-way to shot in a 

 layer, arch fashion, several feet deep around a vessel, 

 would sustain more battering than any other subject 

 we are acquainted with, metal excepted. Were the 

 part above water of a strong steam-vessel, having 

 the paddles under cover, a section of a spheroid or 

 half egg cut longitudinally, and covered all around 

 with the root cuts of larch five or six feet deep with 

 the hewn down bulb, external; well supported in- 



