Major-General Roy's Account of the 
cured.; with this farther precaution, that by truffing them, 
they fhould be rendered perfectly inflexible, a circumftance not 
before attended to. 
As fome difficulty had been found in procuring well-feafoned 
Pine-wood of fufficient length, and perfectly free from knots, 
for the intended purpoie ; therefore Sir Joseph Banks had 
early applied to the Admiralty for afiiftance in this refpedt ; 
and forthwith obtained an order to be furnifhed with what we 
might have occalion for, from his Majefty’s yard at Deptford, 
where an old New- England maft, and alfo one of Riga wood, 
w r ere fpeedily cut up for our ufe. 
New-England white Pine is lighter, lefs liable to warp, and 
lefs affedted by moifture, than Riga red wood. But the New- 
Engiand maft, wdien it came to be very minutely examined, was 
found to be too much wounded by (hot- holes in fome parts, 
or too much decayed or knotty in others, to afford us a fuffi- 
ciency. This being the cafe we had recourfe to the Riga 
wood, which was indeed extremely fmooth and beautiful ; and 
fo perfectly ftraight-grained, that a fibre of it, when lifted up, 
might be drawn, like a thread, almoft from one end to the 
other. 
It had been in contemplation, to make the rods of twenty- 
five or thirty feet in length ; and one of the former dimetifions 
was actually conftr acted : hut this being found to be rather too 
unwieldy, it was judged beft to content ourfelves with thofe of 
about twenty feet. 
Different opinions have been entertained with regard to the beft 
mode of applying rods in meafurement ; fome contending that 
contadts, or that of butting the end of one rod againft the end of 
the other, is the beft ; while others (with more probability of 
