river, and roughly squared into logs varying from 2 to 3 feet in diameter. It is floated down in enormous rafts, the logs being bound together with willows and hazel boughs. These rafts are manned by a large crew, many of whom bring their wives with them to cook for the party, sleeping huts are erected on the raft, and it becomes to all intents and purposes a little floating village, which is frequently three months in making the voyage down the river.”
This larch is now shipped to London in some quantity for various purposes, and has been considerably used for piles in the Dover harbour works, and elsewhere. Mr. D.J. Morgan of Morgan Gellibrand and Company informs me that it is one of the most durable timbers that can be used, but so hard that when it is being sawn water is poured on the saw to keep it from heating, and this is probably the reason why it is not much used in England. He informs me that all the lighters at Onega were built of larch timbers, which lasted a very long time, and that when an old house at Archangel, which had been built on a foundation of larch logs, was pulled down, they were found to be quite sound after lying on the ground for possibly a hundred years. The experiments which have been made with it in the quays at the Surrey Commercial Docks, where the wood was continually wet and dry, have proved the lasting power of this wood, which, from what I have seen of it, is much closer in the grain than English-grown larch. But Mr. G. Cartwright, engineer of the Grimsby Docks, tells me that though he has no actual personal experience of its use, it is considered inferior to the best English larch, as indeed its lower price would imply, and inferior in strength and durability under water to English oak, greenheart, jarrah, or even to Danzig red fir, and that for constructional purposes he would consider its value less than half that of large oak.
Messrs. Crundall and Company of Dover inform me that Messrs. Pearson and Sons have used a large quantity of larch deals for their block moulds, and for other purposes where much wear and rough usage is entailed, and the wood has given entire satisfaction. I purchased from Messrs. Howard Bros. and Company of London a long clean log of this tree, from north Russia, in order to compare it with that of home-grown larch, and find the wood is very slowly grown, there being fifteen rings in an inch of radius. The heartwood is less red and apparently much less resinous than that of the European larch. My carpenter reports that when free from knots it works as well as some red deal, and he considers it very well suited for the roofs of plant houses. Its present value is from £11 to £13 per standard. (H.J.E.)
