SECTION XIV. 



493 



certainly an advantageous property for many purposes. Vitruvius 

 tells us, that the way in which this property of the Larch was dis- 

 covered, was that, when Cassar commanded a body of troops near the 

 Alps, he had occasion, in enforcing an order for provisions, to attempt 

 to set fire to the turret of a small fort in that quarter ; but, being 

 composed of great beams of Larch, it resisted his efforts, (intacta 

 apparuit.) — Architect, lib. ii. 9. Gilpin, however, seems to believe that 

 Hannibal, at a much earlier period than this, in his celebrated pas- 

 sage of the Alps, had found the way to make this wood burn with 

 great facility ; and he quotes Livy as his authority. But that histo- 

 rian merely says, that " the men cut down and lopped immense trees," 

 ( immanes arhores ; ) of which (trunks and branches together) having 

 made a vast pile, they set it on fire, and succeeded in so far heat- 

 ing the rocks, that they were dissolved by means of vinegar. — See 

 lib. xxii. 88. 



Note XXI. Page 864. 



Most writers affirm that Larch, wood will neither shrink nor warp. 

 Mr Pontey, in his useful Treatise on Pruning, says, that no w^ood 

 shrinks so little as the Larch of this country, even much less than 

 foreign deal. But the evidence he has adduced is by no means so 

 satisfactory as it were to be wished. He likewise thinks that it is a 

 wood which is very easily seasoned, and that the operation may be per- 

 formed in less than three months. But his experiments were made on 

 small pieces of wood, and all within doors. — See Forest Pruner, 

 pp. 86, 89. Wishing, like this very sensible writer, to speak solely 

 from experience, 1 am obliged to say that my experience on this sub- 

 ject differs very materially from his. 



Warping and shrinking I consider as pretty nearly the same thing ; 

 at least they proceed from the same cause — namely, the aqueous matter 

 not being expelled from the wood. In every instance, I have found 

 it extremely difficult to season British Larch of from five-and-thirty 

 to fifty years' growth, on account of its extraordinary tendency to 

 warp. The purposes for which I used it were, most commonly, 

 as beams, joists, and rafters for houses, for field-gates, and the like. 

 But to stack it up, after being sawn out, was impossible, as it was 

 found incapable of supporting its own weight, in pieces of only a few 

 feet in length. Even lying flat in single pieces it warped ; in both 

 cases forming segments of circles of the strangest sort. The only 

 remedy appeared to be, to immerse it in water ; in which, after lying 

 for some time, the tendency to warp seemed to go off, and it became 

 more susceptible of exsiccation. To such a height did warping on such 



