LARCH. 



99 



this cii'cumstance will, at the same time, completeiy 

 revoiutionize sea affairs, laying on the shelf om* huge 

 men-of-war, whose place will be occupied with nu- 

 merous bomb-cannon boats, whose small size will 

 render them difficult to be hit, and from vv^hich one 

 single explosive shot taking effect low down in the 

 large exposed side of a three decker will tear open a 

 breach sufficient to sink her almost instantly. For 

 the construction of these boats, larch, especially 

 were a proportion bent, would he extremely suit- 

 able, and thence larch will probably, ere long, be- 

 come our naval stay. 



Larch has been used in the building-yards of the 

 Tay for 20 years back; and there is now afloat 

 several thousand tons of shipping constructed of it. 

 The Athole Frigate built of it nearly 12 years ago, 

 the Larch, a fine brig built by the Duke of Athole 

 several years earlier, and many other vessels built 

 more recently, prove that larch is as valuable for na- 

 val purposes as the most sanguine had anticipated* 

 The first instance we have heard of British larch be- 

 ing used in this manner, was in a sloop repaired mth 

 it about 22 years back. The person to whom it had 

 belonged, and who had sailed it himself, stated to us 

 immediately after its loss, that this sloop had been 

 built of oak about 36 years before ; that at 18 years 



G 2 



