Lib. 3.
Chap. 3. When you have found firm Earth to make it more solid, you must beat it with a Rammer; but if you cannot arrive at solid Earth, but find it still soft and spungy, you must dig as far as you can, and drive in Piles of Alder, Olive, or Oak, a little singed, near together, and fill up the void Places between the Piles with Coal.
Lib. 1.
Chap. 5. In short, you must make all Masonry with the most solid Stone that can be found for this use.
To make the Binding of the Stones the stronger in the Foundation of great Fabricks, you must put Piles of Olive a little singed and placed very thick from one Parement or Course to another, which serves, as it were, for Keys and Braces; for this Wood so prepar'd, is not subject to Worms, and will endure for ever, either in the Earth or in the Water, without the least Damage.
Lib. 6.
Chap. 11. When you would make Cellars, the Foundations must be much larger; for the Wall that is to support the Earth requires a greater thickness to resist the strong Efforts that the Earth makes against it in Winter, at which time it swells and becomes more heavy by reason of the Water it has drunk up.
ART. IV.
Of the Walls.
Lib. 4.
Chap. 2.
