THE OAK. 



55 



Roman city of Anderida. The timber of which 

 this vessel is constructed is Oak, perfectly soimd, 

 and nearly as hard as iron ; and some persons 

 believe it to be one of the fleet abandoned by the 

 Danes after their defeat in the reign of Alfred. 

 This, however, is but conjecture; still, whether it 

 be so, or whether it be a wreck of some Danish 

 pirates, it must have lain there many centuries. 

 Sir Joseph Banks records, in the Journal of 

 Science, the following account of an ancient canoe 

 found in Lincolnshire in April, 1816, at a depth 

 of eight feet under the surface, in cutting a drain, 

 parallel ^^'ith the river Witham, about two miles 

 east of Lincoln, between that city and Horsley 

 Deep. It seems hollowed out of an Oak tree ; it 

 is thirty feet eight inches long, and measures three 

 feet broad in the ^^'idest part. The thickness of 

 the bottom is between seven and eight inches. 

 Another similar canoe was discovered in cutting 

 a drain near Horseley Deep ; but it was unfor- 

 tunately destroyed by the workmen before it was 

 ascertained w^hat it was. Its length was nearly 

 the same as the other, but it was four and a half 

 feet wide. Besides these, three other canoes, re- 

 sembling the above in construction, have been 

 found in the same county : one in a pasture near 

 the river Trent, not far from Gainsborough ; and 

 two in cutting a drain through the fens below 

 Lincoln. One of these is deposited in the British 

 Museum. Conjecture alone can be indulged as to 

 the probable age of these three canoes ; but the 

 fact of their being hollowed out of the trunks of 

 trees must carry them back to a very early date, 

 and establish their extreme antiquity. Long 

 before the time of Alfred the Britons were fami- 



