LARCH. 



101 



sityof the larch, we would not deem it suitable for 

 planking vessels beyond the size of ordinary mer- 

 chantmen, say 500 tons, as in the straining of very 

 large vessels, when the greatest force comes upon 

 the outward skin, the fabric of the wood might 

 crush before it, along the edge of the plank, and 

 throw (chew) the oakmn. In ordinary sized vessels, 

 however, larch plank retains the oakum better than 

 oak, from greater lateral elasticity. For the pur- 

 pose of timbers, if root-cuts % and properly bent, we 

 would think larch suitable to the largest class of 

 vessels ; as, though hght, it is tough and quite free 

 from knot, crack, or cross-grain, which is so common 

 in oak, and which occasions dense old oak in large 

 masses to give way at once, before a shock or strain, 

 the hardness and unyielding natm*e of the fibre con- 

 centrating the whole dirupting impetus to one point. 

 Larch may also be advantageously employed in the 

 ceiling or inside skin of the part of war vessels above 

 water : shot bores it, comparatively, like an auger, — 

 thence the structm*e will endm-e longer under fire, 

 and life be much economized. 



In all places where larch has become known, it 

 has completely superseded other timber for clinker- 



* As you ascend the tree the timber deteriorates greatly. 



