The front ends of the rafters are connected by a longitudinal, 18 feet in length.
The structure is covered with waterproof canvas held in place by wooden rods, to which it is attached.
The wood employed is pitch pine.
An entire market of 300 stalls can be put up in three hours by one workman and four assistants.—Le Genie Civil.
DINOCRATES' PROJECT.
Vitruvius relates that the architect Dinocrates proposed to Alexander the Great to carve Mount Athos in such a way as to give it the shape of a man, whose one hand should support an entire city, and whose other should carry a cup which received all the waters from the mountain, and from which they overflowed into the sea.
Alexander, charmed with the idea, asked him if this city was to be surrounded by land capable of supplying it with the grain necessary for its subsistence. Having ascertained that the provisioning could only be done by sea, Alexander said: "Dinocrates, I grant the beauty of your project; it pleases me, but I think that any one who should take it into his head to establish a colony in the place you propose would run the risk of being taxed with want of foresight; for, just as a child can neither feed nor develop without the milk of a nurse, so a city cannot increase without fertile fields, have a large population without plenty of food, and allow its inhabitants to subsist without rich harvests; so, while giving the originality of your plan my approval, I have to say to you that I disapprove of the place that you have selected for putting it into execution. But I want you to stay near me, because I shall have need of your services."
This gigantic project had doubtless been suggested to the Macedonian architect by the singular forms that certain mountains affect. It is not rare, in fact, to see human profiles delineated upon the sky, and this phenomenon especially happens in countries where the folded limestone strata have been broken up in such a way as to give rise to deep valleys perpendicular to the direction of the chain. If we look at these folds from below in an oblique direction, we shall see them superposed upon one another in such a way as to represent figures that recall a human profile.