OCR Text |
Show WOOD LASTS FOR CENTURIES Oak Burled In Water or Wet Sand Has Proved to Be Practically Indestructible. In-destructible. Men employed In driving a new gallery gal-lery In a gold mine at Charlotte Plains, In Victoria, Australia, have made an astonishing discovery. At a depth of 800 feet helow ground they have come "upon pieces of timber perfectly preserved, pre-served, which have every appearance of having been sawed and shaped by the hand of man. This timber lies In the bed of an ancient river now being worked for - gold, and the timber is oak. Now, oak has the peculiar property of last-log last-log for centuries when buried In water or wet sand. Oak piles have been taken out from under old wooden bridges constructed by the Romans, and found as sound as when they were put there, nearly 2,000 years ago. Oak. known as bog oak, is found burled in Irish peat bogs, and is perfectly per-fectly black, intensely hard, and very valuable. Just before the world's war It was discovered that the bed of the river Moksha, in Russia, for a length of over 400 miles, Is simply full of magnificent old oak trees bedded in sand. The river Is shallow, and broad, and the oak can easily be raised. Smaller deposits are found in England. Eng-land. There is a pool in the river Dart, known from time immemorial as Oak pool, In the bottom of which are masses of fine old oak. The strange thing Is that there are no oak trees near the spot at present. |