XIV.] 
ITALIAN OAK. 
§5 
is a fact worth mentioning, as showing the unusual hard¬ 
ness of this kind of timber, when well seasoned, that I 
have known many sawyers, when only entered tem¬ 
porarily in the dockyards for some pressing work to be 
done, leave rather than be employed in cutting this 
timber. 
Very large supplies of this description of timber were 
sent to H.M. dockyards during the years i860 to 1863, 
the greater part of it having been contracted for just 
prior to the introduction of iron ships for war purposes. 
But the wooden fleet having been almost superseded by 
the time it was delivered, a considerable quantity of it is 
still upon hand (1875); yet even now, although much of 
it has been from ten to twelve years in store, it is for the 
most part in a good state of preservation. The French 
Government for a long time drew upon the Italian states 
for considerable quantities of this Oak for the use of 
their dockyards, and were often competing with our own 
for the possession of it; thus, until quite recently, Italian 
Oak was an important and valuable article to the two 
chief naval powers of the world. 
In the employment of this wood very few defects are 
found, and no better evidence is necessary to show that 
great care is taken of it during its growth. It has both 
the star and the cup shake, but neither of these defects 
are very common in the Oaks grown upon the mainland 
or in the island of Sardinia. The Sicilian Oaks have, 
however, rather extensive cup-shake defects. 
It was stipulated in the conditions of the navy con¬ 
tracts that about three-fourths of all the Italian Oak 
timber should be of compass form—that is to say, to 
qualify it as such, it must have at least five inches of 
curve in twelve feet, taken in any part of the length of 
the log; and this proportion was almost invariably 
