OF FOREST-TREES. 111

serve. The Talmeto growing to that prodigious Height in the Barba- C hap III.dos, and whose Top bears an excellently tasted Cabbage, grows so won-^^"^dersully hard, that an Edge-tool will scarce be forced into it.

Tines, ‘Pitch, Alder and Elm are excellent to make Tumps andConduit-pipes, and for all Wat er -works, SCc. Fir for Beams, Bolts ,

Bars, being tough, and not so apt to break as the hardest Oak .- InSum, the more odoriferous Trees are the more durable and l asting • andyet I conceive that well-fealbned Oak may contend with any of them;especially, if either preserved under Ground, or kept perfectly dry s Inthe mean Time, as to its Application in Shipping., the best of it oughtto be employed for the Keel (that is, within, else Elm exceeds) thewwn. Beams and Rasters , whilst for the ornamental Parts, much slight-er Timber serves: One Note. more is requisite, namely, that great Carehe had to make the Trundels of the best, toughest, and sincerest Part,many a V?sfel having been lost upon this Account; and therefore dryand young Timber is to be preferred for this, and for which the Hol-landers are plentifully furnished out of Ireland, as Nicholas fVitfen-has himself acknowledged.

Is it not after all this to be deplored, that we who have such perpe-tual Use and Convenience for Ship-timber , should be driven to procureit of Foreign Stores , lo many thousand Loads, at intolerable Prices :

But this we are obliged to do and supply from the Eafiern Countries ,as far as Norway, Toland ., Trujsia , TFantzick , and farther, evenfrom Bohemia , though greatly impaired by sobbing so long in the Pasosage. But of this the most industrious, and our worthy Friend Mr .Tepys( ate Secretary of the Admiralty ) has given a just and profitable Ac-count m his Memoirs. ~ J

* H . ere farther for the T)ses of Timber , I will observe to ourea er some other Tarticulars, for Direction both of the Seller anday er, applicable to the several Species : And first of the two Sorts of, a 3e f showed by Statute , one of jive , the other of four Foot long,ecau e of the different Intervals of Rasters: That of five has oneun red to the Bundle, those of four one hundred and twenty ; and toC . Breadth one Inch and half and half Inch thick ; of either ofwhich Sorts there are three , viz. Heart-oak , Sap-lathes, and T)eal-latheSy which also differ in Trice : The Heart-oak are fittest to lie un-der Tyling, the second Sort, for Tlajlering of Side-walls ; and thethird for Ceilings , because they are streight and even. .

17. Here we will gratifie our curious Reader with as curious an Ac-count bf the comparative Strength and Fortitude of the several usualSorts 0 imber, as upon Suggestions previous to this IVork , it was severalTimes experimented by the Royal Society, though omitted in the firstImpression, because the Trials were not compleat as they now thusstand in our Register, ^

MARcaaj. 1663.

begun to

The Experiment of breaking several Sorts of Wood was bbe made; And there were taken three Pieces of several Kinds; of FirOak and Ash, each an Inch thick, and two Foot long, the Fir weieh-ed 8* Ounces, and was broken with two hundred Pounds Weight * TheOak weighed ix| Ounces, broken with two hundred and fifty Pounds» IOi broken ™h teKS

twenty-fiye Pounds Weight. , .

x

Besides,