VIII.] B'RITISH OAK. 95 



" It is stated that at the lowest estimate^ the total 

 quantity of timber in these nine trees amounts to 3,200 

 cubic feet of the very best quality for naval architecture, 

 and that although they must be of great age, it is 

 remarkable that no symptoms of decay appear in them. 

 They are perfectly sound and free from blemish." 



The characteristic properties of the British Oak are, 

 upon the whole, so good, that it has long been accepted 

 by practical men as a standard of quality and fitness for 

 architectural purposes, and in the classification of all 

 other hard and heavy woods in use in the royal dock- 

 yards, they are tabulated as " substitutes " for " Oak " ; 

 the individual species, differing from it either in kind or 

 specific gravity, or in having some important property 

 attached to it, being only specially noted in the specifi- 

 cation for building a ship* whenever it is considered 

 desirable to secure some particular element of lightness 

 or strength, dissimilar to that of the standard. 



The English Oak tree, if grown in sheltered situa- 

 tions or in forests, frequently reaches to a height of 70 

 to 100 feet, with a clear, straight stem of from 30 to 40 

 feet, and a circumference of 8 to 10 feet, and much 

 larger specimens (though now only rarely to be met 

 with) were formerly common. If grown in open and 

 exposed situations, it is generally shorter, and fre- 

 quently takes strange and eccentric forms, assuming a 



* No wooden man-of-war has been built for our Navy for upwards of 

 twenty years, nor are we in the least likely to revert to the building of such ; 

 but, although Oak is now so little used for ship-building in comparison with 

 its demand when the above remarks were written, I have retained Mr. Laslett's 

 words because his opinion applies to other uses to which this timber is applied. 

 The case is somewhat different in the Mercantile Marine, and of the vessels on 

 Lloyd's register about 10 per cent, of the British tonnage is of wood. This is 

 still more the case with the Colonies, which, having more abundant material, 

 build more wooden vessels^than we do, though the ships themselves are of a 

 less important commercial type. 



