Page:Timber and Timber Trees, Native and Foreign.djvu/281

XXXI.] there are, doubtless, many Larch trees of straight growth in Italy, since it is stated on good authority that the greater number of the houses in Venice are built upon piles of this timber, particularly those of which the supports are alternately exposed to wet and dry; many of these piles, after being in place for ages, are said not to have the least appearance of decay.

This wood evidently stood in high favour in early times. Julius Cæsar—who called it " Lignum igni impenetrable," because he could not burn it with the same facility as other timber—used it for every purpose whenever he could obtain it. Tiberius Cæsar brought it over long distances from the forests of Rhætia for the reparation of several bridges, and Pliny relates that a Larch tree, measuring 120 feet long and 2 feet in thickness, from end to end, was intended to be used in one of these. It was, however, preserved for a long time as a curiosity, and ultimately employed in the building of a large amphitheatre.

The Polish Larch tree is generally of straight growth, and of dimensions rather exceeding the Italian variety. It is also coarser in the grain, more knotty, and has a larger amount of alburnum, or sap-wood.

The Russian Larch tree attains dimensions superior to either of the foregoing descriptions. A cargo of this timber, very long and straight, was imported into this country a few years since from the district of the Petchora, a river flowing from the Ural Mountains into the Arctic Ocean.

This parcel passed into the hands of the Government for the service of Woolwich Dockyard, where a portion of it was employed experimentally in ship-building, for