126 



GROWING GOLD. 



CHAPTER VIII, 



DEMAND FOR TIMBER. 



The average duration of shipping has of 

 course been ascertained, so that in a given 

 time the whole of the royal and commercial 

 navies* now in existence will cease to be sea 

 worthy. The prospective demand for oak 

 timber is therefore for this single purpose 

 immense, and does not depend upon con- 

 tingencies ; or, if it do, the contingencies 

 will be found much fevv^er than most of the 



* In 1826, the latter consisted of twenty thousand four hundred and 

 sixty-nine vessels, exclusive of those belonging to the Channel Islands and 



British plantations. ' \ 



