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 somewhat 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 manufactured 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.
