( 34 ) 



a decayed tree. He employed three pair of 

 wheels, and eighteen horfes in dragging it 

 into his yard. From the top of it he cut 

 a valuable piece of knee-timber^ (as it is 

 called) which is not eafily found, to make 

 the head of a frigate. The remaining part 

 he fold for eighteen pounds, to be made 

 into a mill-pott. The whole tree was per- 

 fectly found, and remarkable fine timber. 

 The value of the aflignment, for which 

 it was given, was probably twenty, or thirty 

 Shillings. 



But the decay of foreft timber is not ow- 

 ing folely either to the legal confumer, or 

 the rapacious trefpaffer. The oak of the foreft 

 will fometimes naturally fail. Mr. Evelin re- 

 marks*, that every foreft, in which oak, 

 and beech grow promifcuouily, will in a 

 courfe of ages become intirely beechen. If 

 this be a juft remark, we are to fuppofe, 

 that oak has not fo ftrong a vegetative power, 

 as beech; which, in time prevails over 



the whole. Whatever truth there may be 



in the obfervation, certain it is, that this 



* See his Sylva. 



appearance 



