xiv.] ITALIAN OAK. 85 



is a fact worth mentioning, as showing the unusual hard- 

 ness of this kind of timber, when well seasoned, that I 

 have known many sawyers, when only entered tem- 

 porarily in the dockyards for some pressing work to be 

 done, leave rather than be employed in cutting this 

 timber. 



Very large supplies of this description of timber were 

 sent to H.M. dockyards during the years 1860 to 1863, 

 the greater part of it having been contracted for just 

 prior to the introduction of iron ships for war purposes. 

 But the wooden fleet having been almost superseded by 

 the time it was delivered, a considerable quantity of it is 

 still upon hand (1875) ; yet even now, although much of 

 it has been from ten to twelve years in store, it is for the 

 most part in a good state of preservation. The French 

 Government for a long time drew upon the Italian states 

 for considerable quantities of this Oak for the use of 

 their dockyards, and were often competing with our own 

 for the possession of it ; thus, until quite recently, Italian 

 Oak was an important and valuable article to the two 

 chief naval powers of the world. 



In the employment of this wood very few defects are 

 found, and no better evidence is necessary to show that 

 great care is taken of it during its growth. It has both 

 the star and the cup shake, but neither of these defects 

 are very common in the Oaks grown upon the mainland 

 or in the island of Sardinia. The Sicilian Oaks have, 

 however, rather extensive cup-shake defects. 



It was stipulated in the conditions of the navy con- 

 tracts that about three-fourths of all the Italian Oak 

 timber should be of compass form that is to say, to 

 qualify it as such, it must have at least five inches of 

 curve in twelve feet, taken in any part of the length of 

 the log; and this proportion was almost invariably 



