So TIMBER AND TIMBER TREES. [chap. 
a length of 12 feet, were worked into the frame of the 
“Pallas,” built at Woolwich Dockyard in 1863, and 
when the timbers were examined after they had been 
dressed and trimmed to a fairness fit to receive the 
planking, it was very difficult to distinguish the French 
from the English Oak with which it was mixed. 
A considerable portion of this French Oak timber, 
after lying in the several royal dockyards for about ten 
years, seasoning, some of it in the open, and some in 
sheds protected from the weather, when surveyed was 
found to be in better condition than the English Oak of 
the same dates of receipt, which had been kept in stacks 
similarly placed for preservation. 
No better evidence than this can be needed to prove 
that the French Oak is equal to the English in point 
of durability, and there is yet to be carried to its credit 
the fact that experiments prove it to be equally strong, 
tough, and elastic. It is also in its favour that it shrinks 
only moderately in seasoning, and rends or splits some¬ 
what less than the English Oak during that process. 
That it is suitable and fit for all the purposes to 
which English Oak is applied, in ship-building or other 
works of construction, there is no reason to doubt; and, 
except that the timber procured from the north-west of 
France is generally smaller, shorter, and has a more 
tapering form than the English Oak timber tree, there 
is no appreciable difference in them, and in a manu¬ 
factured state the cleverest expert could not tell one 
from the other. 
The experiments made on French Oak (Tables 
XXIV., XXV., and XXVI.) are perhaps sufficient to 
show its relative merits as compared with our standard. 
French is classed with English Oak at Lloyd’s, for 
employment in ship-building. 
