ABSTRACT
NOW wooden buildings that are to be erected above water are better constructed from beams that have no splits or cracks, in case they grow rotten with the onset of driving rain or snowfall. As to the season when they should be felled and hauled out of the woods by the industry of builders, I think that for the sake of brevity I should refer the enquiring reader to Pliny, Bk XVI, Ch. 39.1 He also shows elsewhere, in Bk XXXVI, Ch. 15, that buildings can be made without nails or iron, something that is regularly done in northern parts and so requires little or no proof from me.2
