So TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [CHAP. 



a length of 12 feet, were worked into the frame of the 

 " Pallas," built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1863, and 

 when the timbers were examined after they had been 

 dressed and trimmed to a fairness fit to receive the 

 planking, it was very difficult to distinguish the French 

 from the English Oak with which it was mixed. 



A considerable portion of this French Oak timber, 

 after lying in the several royal dockyards for about ten 

 years, seasoning, some of it in the open, and some in. 

 sheds protected from the weather, when surveyed was 

 found to be in better condition than the English Oak of 

 the same dates of receipt, which had been kept in stacks 

 similarly placed for preservation. 



No better evidence than this can be needed to prove 

 that the French Oak is equal to the English in point 

 of durability, and there is yet to be carried to its credit 

 the fact that experiments prove it to be equally strong, 

 tough, and elastic. It is also in its favour that it shrinks 

 only moderately in seasoning, and rends or splits some- 

 what less than the English Oak during that process. 



That it is suitable and fit for all the purposes to 

 which English Oak is applied, in ship-building or other 

 works of construction, there* is no reason to doubt ; and, 

 except that the timber procured from the north-west of 

 France is generally smaller, shorter, and has a more 

 tapering form than the English Oak timber tree, there 

 is no appreciable difference in them, and in a manu- 

 factured state the cleverest expert could not tell one 

 from the other. 



The experiments made on French Oak (Tables 

 XXIV, XXV., and XXVI.) are perhaps sufficient to 

 show its relative merits as compared with our standard. 

 French is classed with English Oak at Lloyd's, for 

 employment in ship-building. 



