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HISTORY OF MARINE ARCHITECTURE.

come worm-eaten or rotten in so short a space of time as to be almost incre-dible.

Some were ridiculous enough to think, that timber felled on the day of thenew moon was absolutely incorruptible; they were also attentive even to the quar-ter from whence the wind blew whenever they had occasion to use the axe ; andthis rule varied with the different seasons of the year. For instance, in the begin-ning of autumn it was deemed improper, except the wind was westerly; or, in thewinter, unless it blew from the north: these, with many other strange prejudices,were at times, however, not without their use ; they infused an enthusiastic spiritinto the people, and proper attention being paid to them, urged and caused greaterexertions, on particular occasions, than in all probability could have been madehad such strange persuasions not existed. To them is to be attributed the won-derful celerity with which the trees of the forest were converted into a navy inthe consulate of Duillius, a period, as is reported, not exceeding seventy days.A fleet, consisting of two hundred and twenty sail, is said to have been builtand equipped in forty-five days, by Lucius Piso, against Hiero, king of Syracuse,who had very suddenly declared war against Rome ; and Scipio is also affirmedto have put to sea, in the second Punic war, with what is historically called afleet, in forty days after the timber, with which it was built, was felled.

Many of the ancients were of opinion that the wood of the orange tree wasmost proper for shipbuilding: to modern conception the idea is as extravagantas it would be to use cinnamon for a bonfire ; yet the term citrum , which isused, will not admit of any other interpretation. The qualities which renderedthat wood so applicable to the purpose, were said to be, that, contrary to everyother, it grew harder from use, and became daily more capable of resisting theefforts of the waves. To season it still farther, and render it, if possible, moredurable, it is said to have been customary to lay it for seven days on drycorn, in order to extract the moisture, or sap, from the heart, a process whichthe ancients were ridiculous enough to imagine was extremely beneficial. Manyother customs equally absurd, we might relate, were we to conceive that thebest of them were of the smallest utility in modern practice.

The chestnut tree was among those in considerable request; nor did the durabi-lity of the cedar pass unnoticed by them. They found, however, some incon-venience in the use of the latter, which was not sufficiently compensated forby its best qualities. In respect to its being little susceptible of decay, theyentertained so high an opinion of it, that, among the Greeks, it was called

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