To give an idea of the enormous quantity of timber necessary to
construct a ship of war, we may observe that 2,000 tons, or 3,000 loads,
are computed to be required for a seventy-four. Now, reckoning fifty
oaks to the acre, of 100 years' standing, and the quantity in each tree
to be a load and a half, it would require forty acres of oak forest to
build one seventy-four; and the quantity increases in a great ratio, for
the largest class of line of battle ships. The average duration of these
vast machines, when employed, is computed to be fourteen years. It is
supposed, that all the full grown oaks now in Scotland would not build
two ships of the line.

_Quarterly Journal of Agriculture_.

* * * * *


THE SHOWER BATH.


Quoth Dermot, (a lodger of Mrs. O'Flynn's),
"How queerly my shower bath feels!
It shocks like a posse of needles and pins,
Or a shoal of electrical eels."

Quoth Murphy, "then mend it, and I'll tell you how,
Its all your own fault, my good fellow;
I used to be bothered as you are, but now
I'm wiser--I take my umbrella."