Common Oak 343 



forests south-east of Brussa he found oaks resembling the English Q. Robur on the 

 upper ranges of the mountains, while in the valleys Q. Cerris or the mossy-cupped 

 oak was found. In Austria, he says, that in the Kogarate mountains, and in the 

 district between the rivers Verbas and Okvina they were chiefly of the sessile 

 variety, mixed occasionally with Q. Cerris, and all of straight growth with long clean 

 stems, generally of good quality, but at that time no attempt had been made to utilise 

 them e;.cept for cleaving cask staves. 



Of all the oaks of which trials were made in our Government dockyards 

 during the period at which British oak became scarce, Laslett says that the 

 white oak of North America compared very favourably with all the foreign 

 oaks, but proved to be slightly inferior in strength to English oaks. 



Bog Oak 



This is obtained from trees which have been buried in peat bogs for centuries, 

 and which has become blackened by the peat water. It is very commonly found in 

 Ireland, and in some parts of England and Scotland. When large and sound enough 

 it is used for furniture, picture frames, and for small ornamental work, but as a rule is 

 so full of shakes, and cracks so much in drying after it is dug up, that it is of no use 

 for cabinet-making except in the form of inlay, or marqueterie. Occasionally, how- 

 ever, fine sound logs are dug out, which if slowly seasoned in an airy cellar may be 

 used for larger work. One of the best examples I have seen of black oak was a door 

 exhibited by Mr. E. R. Pratt of Ryston at the Royal Agricultural Society's Show 

 at Park Royal in 1905, made from oak found on his property in Norfolk. He 

 tells me that the planks after being sawn are dressed two or three times with 

 "fuel" or "dead" oil which replaces the evaporated water by the refuse of 

 petroleum, a substance theoretically similar to that lost by age. The result is 

 certainly very successful. 



Many cases have been recorded and published of the great durability of the 

 timber of the oak under ground and under water ; but I have come across no relic of 

 the past so interesting in this respect as the prehistoric boat which was dug up at 

 Brigg, in Lincolnshire, in 1884, when digging a foundation for a gasometer. This 

 has been well described by the Rev. D. Gary Elwes in a lecture, which was published 

 in 1903,^ and a photograph of it is published in a recent pamphlet by the Rev. A. N. 

 Claye," for which I am indebted to Miss Wool ward. This wonderfully preserved 

 dug-out was hollowed out of one huge oak log 48^ feet long, and approximately 6 feet 

 in diameter, which showed no sighs of branches, a log which must have contained 

 nearly 1000 feet of timber, and which could not be matched now in England, or, so 

 far as we know, in Europe or North America. The boat is 4 feet 3 inches wide by 

 2 feet 8 inches deep at the bows, and 4 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 4 inches at the stern, 

 which was the root end of the tree. The sides are about 2 inches thick, the bottom 

 4 inches at the bows, and as much as 16 inches at the stern. The stern piece was 



' A Prehistoric Boat. Stanton and Son, Northampton. 

 ^ Brigg Church and Tovm. Jackson, Brigg. 



