30 THE OAK. 



and account for the fact that it is now less common than 

 the other on the supposition that our forefathers were well 

 aware of the superiority of the former species, and applied 

 it so extensively to all works requiring durability, that it 

 has long become comparatively scarce. But a few years 

 since, it was generally believed that the beautiful carved 

 roof of Westminster Hall was constructed of Chestnut. 

 Recent examination has, however, proved that it is com- 

 posed entirely of Durmast Oak. This roof has stood for 

 more than three hundred years. The foundation on which 

 the stone piers of old London Bridge were laid consisted 

 of huge piles of timber, which when taken up were found 

 to be perfectly sound, though they must have been driven 

 upwards of six hundred years. The wood employed is 

 from trees of the same species. Most of the timber found 

 in old buildings which was formerly believed to be Chest- 

 nut, is now known to be the wood of the Durmast Oak. 

 In the year 1844 there was raised from the bottom of a 

 lake at Davey Strand, between Dublin and Cavan, a huge 

 canoe, which had been hollowed out of the trunk of a 

 tree of the same kind. It measured no less than forty 

 feet in length, the bottom being four feet three inches in 

 diameter at one end, and about three feet at the other. 

 On a fair computation, the circumference of this tree must 

 have been at least twenty-one feet at the base, and fifteen 

 feet at the height of forty feet from the ground. The 

 antiquity of this relic is almost too great to be speculated 

 on. Much of the wood-work in the old border fortresses 

 of Wales, and the doors of pews in ancient churches, are 

 made from the same tree. The principal difference ap- 

 parent to the eye between the timber of the two species is, 

 that Quercus Robur is plentifully furnished with medullary 

 rays, called by carpenters "silver-grain," of which the 

 other species is almost entirely destitute, resembling in 

 this respect the Chestnut : from this similarity have pro- 

 bably sprung the numerous mistakes of the one wood for 

 the other. On the whole it would seem that, whatever 



