148 GROWING GOLD. 



throne ; this chair probably stood on the 

 dais * at the time ; it is as sound as on the day 

 it was made ; it is fastened together by pegs, 

 and there is not a nail in it. Expensive 

 modern furniture has been made of oak. 

 Old buildings, in which oak forms a part, 

 shows its durability for this purpose. The 

 ancient boat, cut out of a solid piece, now 

 deposited in the British Museum, and which 

 had been imbedded in the earth for many 

 centuries, proclaims the suitableness of the 

 common British oak timber for every im- 

 portant purpose required by man. Heedless 

 of these incontestible facts, presumptuous and 

 avaricious men have been, and still are, 

 searching for something new, to impose on a 

 credulous public. i 



The nurseries and plantations on many 

 estates contain so many kinds of trees which 

 produce bad timber, one would almost fancy 

 the persons who have the selections have no 

 other desire than to find out and propagate 



* See Ivanhoe, First Part of Vol. I,— The Hall of the Saxons. 



