Concerning the process of its preparation, as we learn from various sources: The inner skins or fibrous rinds of the plant were peeled off, somewhat as the outer bark of a birch tree may be detached, and then these strips of the papyrus were placed one upon another so that the "grain," or fiber, of each strip would extend crosswise to the other--sometimes three layers, even, were superimposed one upon another--after the manner of the modern two or three-ply wood veneering. The purpose of this process was to give greater strength and durability to the writing material made therefrom. The glutinous juice in these strips, (or, perhaps they were moistened by the waters of the Nile) on being subjected to pressure were glued together in one intact sheet. These larger sheets were afterwards smoothed and polished, bleached in the sun, and then cut up into strips to the dimensions of eight, twelve, or even fifteen inches in width as desired, for the rolls, or, as at a later time, into short, rectangular sections for the leaves of books. The writing on these rolls, as on those made of parchment, was in columns, crosswise at convenient intervals, with a margin at the top and the bottom of the columns. The length of the column lines of writing was governed by the writer's taste or inclination, or the character of the composition--if poetical, by the metre. The size of the rolls, however, was determined by the amount of writing to be recorded--one of the longer books of the New Testament; _e. g._, would constitute an ordinary roll, while it would require thirty or forty or even more rolls on which to transcribe the entire Bible. According to BIRT, the average length of the papyrus roll slightly exceeded forty feet, but instances are cited of rolls reaching the length of one hundred and fifty feet. This writer is authority for the statement that a Homeric papyrus roll one hundred and twenty feet in length was burned in Byzantium in the fifth century. Mr. Putnam observes in connection with the size of the papyrus rolls: "It is possible the writer of the Apocalypse may have had one of these enormous scrolls in his vision when he beheld the record of the sins of Babylon reaching to the heavens."[28] The larger papyrus books were thus, literally, "weighty tomes," and, because they were too heavy and cumbrous to hold in the hand, were read from a table or desk. The cumbrous character of these large volumes was the basis for the dictum of the Alexandrian grammarian, "A big book is a big nuisance."