THE OAK. 



57 



those of Hazel and Ash, as they are six times 

 more durable : it also makes the very best vralk- 

 ing-sticks, and very good handles to carters' whips. 

 Of the roots, Evelyn says, were formerly made 

 hafts to daggers, handles to knives, tobacco-boxes, 

 mathematical instruments, tablets for artists to 

 paint on instead of canvass, and elegant camleted 

 joiner's work. Oak wood, every one know^s, is 

 preferred before all others for ship -building, in 

 the temperate regions of both hemispheres. From 

 its toughness, it does not splinter when it is 

 struck by a cannon-ball, and the hole made by a 

 ball is consequently easy to plug up. Through- 

 out Europe, and more especially in Britain, Oak 

 timber vras used for every purpose, both of naval 

 and civil architecture, till the wood of the pine 

 and fir tribe came to be generally imported from 

 the Baltic and North America, about the begin- 

 ning of the last century. Since that period, the 

 use of Oak timber has given way to that of Pine 

 and Fir in house-building ; but still it maintains 

 its superiority in the construction of ships, and 

 various kinds of machines ; and even in house- 

 building, where great durabihty is required. Oak 

 wood is also still employed in joinery and cabinet- 

 making. 



A writer in the Quarterly Review^ Oct, 1814, 

 comparing the qualities of Oak timber grown in 

 various places, says : The more sappy timber is, 

 the more it is subject to be infected with fungi 

 and the dry-rot ; thus all the timber brought from 

 the forests of Germany, of which the Antwerp 

 fleet has been built, is remarkably subject to the 

 dry-rot ; so is all the timber brought from the 

 forests of America ; whereas the timber of trees 



