salmon with a line and hook, because it is much the same with trout fishing.

Curing salmon. When the salmon are taken, they open them along the back, take out the guts and gills, and cut out the greatest part of the bones, endeavouring to make the inside as smooth as possible, then salt the fish in large tubs for the purpose, where they lie a considerable time soaking in brine, and about October they are packed close up in bar. rels, and sent to London, or exported up the Mediterranean. They have also in Scotland a great deal of salmon salted in the common way, which, after soaking in brine a competent time, is well pressed, and then dried in smoke; this is called kipper, and is chiefly made for home consumption, and if properly cured and prepared is reckoned very delicious.

FISHERY, sturgeon. The greatest sturgeon fishery is in the mouth of the Volga, on the Caspian Sea, where the Mus covites employ a great number of hands, and catch them in a kind of enclosure formed by huge stakes, representing the letter Z, repeated several times. These fisheries are open on the side next the sea, and close on the other, by which means, the fish ascending in the season up the river are embarrassed in these narrow angular retreats, and thus are easily killed with a harping-iron. Sturgeons, when fresh, eat deliciously; and in order to make them keep, they are salted or pickled in large pieces, and put up in kegs from thirty to fifty pounds. But the great object of this fishery is the roe, of which the Muscovites are extremely fond, and of which is made the cavear or kavia, so much esteemed by the Italians. See CAVEAR.

FISHERY, whale. Whales are chiefly caught in the North Sea: the largest sort are found about Greenland or Spitzbergen. At the first discovery of this country, whales, not being used to be disturbed, frequently came into the very bays, and were accordingly killed almost close to the shore, so that the blubber being cut off was immediately boiled into oil on the spot. The ships, in those times, took in nothing but the pure oil and the fins, and all the business was executed in the country, by which means, a ship could bring home the product of many more whales, than she can according to the present method of conducting this trade. The fishery also was then so plentiful, that they were obliged sometimes to send

other ships to fetch off the oil they had made, the quantity being more than the fishing ships could bring away. But time and change of circumstances have shifted the situation of this trade. The ships coming in such numbers from Holland, Denmark, Hamburgh, and other northern countries, all intruders upon the English, who were the first discoverers of Green. land, disturbed the whales, and gradually, as other fish often do, forsaking the place, were not to be killed so near the shore as before; but are now found, and have been so ever since, in the openings and spaces among the ice, where they have deep water, and where they go sometimes a great many leagues from the

shore.

The whale fishery begins in May, and continues all June and July; but whether the ships have good or bad success, they must come away and get clear of the ice by the end of August; so that in the month of September, at farthest, they may be expected home; but a ship that meets with a fortunate and early fishery in May may return in June or July.

:

The manner of taking whales at present is as follows: as soon as the fishermen hear the whale blow, they cry out fall! fall! and every ship gets out its long boat, in each of which there are six or seven men they row till they come pret ty near the whale, then the harpooner strikes it with the harpoon. This requires great dexterity, for through the bone of his head there is no striking, but near his spout there is a soft piece of flesh, into which the iron sinks with ease. As soon as he is struck, they take care to give him rope enough, otherwise, when he goes down, as he frequently does, he would inevitably sink the boat: this rope he draws with such violence, that, if it were not well watered, it would, by its friction against the sides of the boat, be soon set on fire. The line fastened to the harpoon is six or seven fathoms long, and is called the fore-runner: it is made of the finest and softest hemp, that it may slip the easier: to this they join a heap of lines of 90 or 100 fathoms each, and when there are not enough in one long boat they borrow from another. The man at the helm observes which way the rope goes, and steers the boat accordingly, that it may run exactly out before : for the whale runs away with the line with so much rapidity, that he would overset the boat if it were not kept straight.

When the whale is struck, the other long boats row before, and observe which way the line stands, and sometimes pull it; if they feel it stiff, it is a sign the whale still pulls in strength, but if it hangs loose, and the boat lies equally high before and behind upon the water, they pull it in gently, but take care to coil it so that the whale may have it again easily, if he recovers strength: they take care, however, not to give him too much line, because he sometimes entangles it about a rock, and pulls out the harpoon. The fat whales do not sink as soon as dead, but the lean ones do, and come up some days afterwards. As long as they see whales, they lose no time in cutting up what they have taken, but keep fishing for others: when they see no more, or have taken enough, they begin with taking off the fat and whiskers in the fol lowing manner: the whale being lashed along side, they lay it on one side, and put two ropes, one at the head and the other in the place of the tail, which, together with the fins is struck off as soon as he is taken, to keep those extremities above water. On the off side of the whale are two boats, to receive the pieces of fat, utensils, and men, that might otherwise fall into the water on that side. These precautions being taken, three or four men, with irons at their feet to prevent slipping, get on the whale, and begin to cut out pieces of about three feet thick and eight long, which are hauled up at the capstan or windlass. When the fat is all got off, they cut off the whiskers of the upper jaw with an axe. Before they cut they are all lashed, to keep them firm, which also facilitates the cutting, and prevents them from falling into the sea; when on board, five or six of them are bundled together, and properly stowed, and after all is got off, the carcase is turned adrift, and devoured by the bears, who are very fond of it. In proportion as the large pieces of fat are cut off, the rest of the crew are employed in slicing them smaller, and picking out all the lean. When this is prepared they stow it under the deck, where it lies till the fat of all the whales is on board; then cutting it still smaller, they put it up in tubs in the hold, cramming them very full and close. Nothing now remains but to sail homewards, where the fat is to be boiled, and melted down into train oil.

It were in vain to speak in this place of

the advantages that may be derived to Great Britain from the whale fishery. We shall only remark, that the legislature thinks that trade of so great importance as to grant a very considerable bounty for the encouragement of it; for every British vessel of 200 tons or upwards, bound to the Greenland Seas on the whale fishery, if found to be duly qualified according to the act, obtains a license from the commissioners of the customs to proceed on such voyage: and on the ship's return, the master and mate making oath that they proceeded on such voyage and no other, and used all their endeavours to take whales, &c. and that all the whale-fins, blubber, oil, &c. imported in their ship, were taken by their crew in those seas, there shall be allowed 40s. for every ton, according to the admeasurement of the ship.

Besides these fisheries, there are several others, both on the coasts of Great Britain and in the North Seas, which, although not much the subject of merchandize, nevertheless employ great numbers both of ships and men; as, 1. The oyster fishing at Colchester, Feversham, the Isle of Wight, in the Swales of the Medway, and in all the creeks between Southampton and Chichester, from whence they are carried to be fed in pits about Wevenhoe and other places. See Ors

TER.

2. The lobster fishing all along the British channel, the firth of Edinburgh, on the coast of Northumberland, and on the coast of Norway, from whence great quantities are brought to London. And, lastly, the fishing of the pot-fish, fin-fish, sea-unicorn, sea-horse, and the seal, or dog-fish, all which are found in the same seas with the whales, and yield blubber in a certain degree; besides, the horn of the unicorn is as estimable as ivory, and the skins of the seals are particularly useful to trunk-makers.

FISHING, in general, the art of catching fish, whether by means of nets, or of spears, lines, rods, and hooks. See ANG

LING.

FISTULA, in the ancient music, an instrument of the wind kind, resembling our flute, or flageolet. See FLUTE,

FISTULA, in surgery, a deep, narrow, and callous ulcer, generally arising from abscesses. Fistulas differ from sinuses in this, that the former are callous, the latter not. See SURGERY.

FISTULA lachrymalis, a disease which

attacks the great caruncle in the inward corner of the eye.

FISTULARIA, the tobacco pipe fish, in natural history, a genus of fines of the order Abdominales. Generic character: snout cylindrical; jaws distant from the eyes; gill membrane with seven rays; body tapering from the jaws to the tail. There are three species. F. tabacaria, or the slender fistularia, grows to the length of three feet, and is found on the coasts of America. By the inhabitants of Brazil it is eaten, though not particularly esteemed by them. It lives principally upon smaller fishes, insects, and worms. These it obtains with great ease, by means of its snout, which it introduces into clefts, and under stones, where they mostly abound. The two other species are natives of the Indian seas.

FITCHEE, in heraldry, a term applied to a cross, when the lower end of it is sharpened into a point.

FITS of easy reflection, &c. in optics. Sir Isaac Newton calls the successive dis

position of a ray to be reflected through different thicknesses of a plate of air, or any other substance, the returns or fits of easy reflection, and the disposition of the same ray to be transmitted in the same manner through the intervening spaces, returns or fits of easy transmission. Thus, a ray of light is in a fit of easy reflection, when it falls on a plate of any kind of matter, whose thickness is one of the terms of the series 1, 3, 5, 7, &c. taking the smallest thickness capable of reflecting such ray for unit; and, in the same way, it is in one of its fits of easy transmission, when the thickness is one of the terms of the series 2, 4, 6, 8, &c. See OPTICS.

FIXED bodies, are those which bear a considerable degree of heat, without evaporating or losing any of their weight.

FIXITY. The property by which bo dies resist the action of heat, so as not to rise in vapour. It is the opposite to vola. tility. The fixity of bodies appears to be merely relative, and depends on the temperature at which they assume the elastic state or form. Such bodies as assume this state at a low temperature will easily rise; whereas those which cannot be so dilated but at an extreme heat will remain fixed in all ordinary situations. From the analogy of a variety of facts, it does not seem probable that any substances are absolutely fixed.

FLACOURTIA, in botany, so called in memory of Stephen de Flacourt, a genus of the Dioecia Polyandria class and order. Natural order of Tiliaceæ, Jussieu. Essential character: male, calyx five-parted; corolla none; stamens very numerous; female, calyx many-leaved; corolla none : germ superior; styles five to nine; berry many celled. There is but one species.

FLAG, a general name for colours, standards, antients, banners, ensigns, &c. which are frequently confounded with each other. The fashion of pointed or triangular flags, as now used, Rod. Toletan assures, came from the Mahometan Arabs, or Saracens, upon their seizing of Spain, before which time all the ensigns of war were stretched, or extended on cross pieces of wood, like the banners of a church. The pirates of Algiers, and throughout the coasts of Barbary, bear an hexagonal flag.

FLAG is more particularly used at sea, for the colours, antients, standards, &c. borne on the tops of the masts of vessels, ship, of what nation it is, and whether it to notify the person who commands the be equipped for war or trade. The admiral in chief carries his flag on the maintop; the vice-admiral on the fore-top; and the rear-admiral on the mizen-top. When a council of war is to be held at sea, if it be on board the admiral, they hang a flag in the main shrouds; if in the vice-admiral, in the fore shrouds; and if in the rear-admiral, in the mizen shrouds.

Besides the national flag, merchant ships frequently bear lesser flags on the mizen mast, with the arms of the city where the master ordinarily resides; and on the foremast, with the arms of the place where the person who freights

them lives.

FLAG, to lower or strike the, is to pull it down upon the cap, or to take it in, out of the respect or submission due from all ships or fleets inferior to those any way justly their superiors. To lower or strike the flag in an engagement, is a sign of yielding.

The way of leading a ship in triumph is to tie the flags to the shrouds, or the gallery, in the hind part of the ship, and let them hang down towards the water, and to tow the vessels by the stern. Livy relates, that this was the way the Romans used those of Carthage.

FLAG, to heave out the, is to put out or put abroad the flag.

FLAG, to hang out the white, is to ask quarter; or it shows, when a vessel is arrived on a coast, that it has no hostile intention, but comes to trade, or the like. The red flag is a sign of defiance and battle.

FLAG officers, those who command the several squadrons of a fleet; such are the admirals, vice-admirals, and rear admiral. The flag officers in our pay are the admiral, vice-admiral, and rear-admiral, of the white, red and blue.

FLAG ship, a ship commanded by a general or flag-officer, who has a right to carry a flag, in contradistinction to the secondary vessels under the command thereof.

FLAGELLARIA, in botany, a genus of the Hexandria Trigynia class and order. Natural order of Tripetaloidea. Asparagi, Jussieu. Essential character: calyx six-parted; corolla none; berry one-seeded. There are two species.

FLAGEOLET, or FLAJEOLET, a little flute, used chiefly by shepherds and country people. It is made of box, or other hard wood, and sometimes of ivory, and has six holes besides that at the bottom, the mouth-piece, and that behind the neck. See FLUTE.

FLAIL, an instrument for thrashing corn. A flail consists of the following parts: 1. The hand-staff, or piece held in the thrasher's hand. 2. The swiple, or that part which strikes out the corn. 3. The caplins, or strong double leathers, made fast to the tops of the hand-staff and swiple. 4. The middle-band, being the leather thong, or fish skin, that ties the caplins together.

FLAIR, in the sea language. When ship is housed in near the water, so that the work above hangs over too much, it is said to flair over. This makes the ship more roomy aloft, for the men to use their arms.

FLAMBEAU, a kind of large taper, made of hempen wicks, by pouring melted wax on their top, and letting it run down to the bottom. This done, they lay them to dry, after which they roll them on a table, and join four of them together by means of a red-hot iron; and then pour on more wax, till the flambeau is brought to the size required. Flambeaus are of different lengths, and made either of white or yellow wax. They serve to give light in the streets at night, or on occasion of illuminations.

FLAME. Newton and others have considered flame as an ignited vapour, or red-hot smoke. This, in a certain sense, may be true, but, no doubt, it contains an inaccurate comparison. Simple ignition never exceeds in intensity of light the body by contact of which it was produced. But it appears to be well ascertained, that flame always consists of volatile inflammable matter, in the act of combustion, and combination with the oxygen of the atmosphere. Many metallic substances are volatilized by heat, and burn with a flame, by the contact of the air in this rare state. Sulphur, phosphorus, and some other bases of acids, exhibit the same phenomenon. But the flames of organized substances are in general produced by the extrication and ascension of hydrogen gas with more or less of charcoal. When the circumstances are not favourable to the perfect combustion of these products, a portion of the coal passes through the luminous current unburned, and forms smoke. Soot is the condensed matter of smoke.

As the artificial light of lamps and candles is afforded by the flame they exhibit, it seems a matter of considerable importance to society, to ascertain how the most luminous flame may be produced with the least consumption of combustible matter. There does not appear to be any danger of error in concluding, that the light emitted will be greatest when the matter is completely consumed in the shortest time. It is, therefore, necessary, that a stream of volatilized combustible matter, of a proper figure, at a very elevated temperature, should pass into the atmosphere with a certain determinate velocity. If the figure of this stream should not be duly proportioned; that is to say, if it be too thick, its internal parts will not be completely burned, for want of contact with the air. If its temperature be below that of ignition, it will not burn when it comes into the open air. And there is a certain velocity, at which the quantity of atmospherical air which comes in contact with the vapour will be neither too great nor too small for too much air will diminish the temperature of the stream of combustible matter so much, as very considerably to impede the desired effect; and too little will render the combustion languid.

We have an example of a flame too

large, in the mouths of the chimneys of furnaces, where the luminous part is merely superficial, or of the thickness of about an inch or two, according to circumstances, and the internal part, though hot, will not set fire to paper passed into it through an iron tube, the same defect of air preventing the combustion of the paper, as prevented the interior fluid itself from burning. And in the lamp of Argand, we see the advantage of an internal current of air, which renders the combustion perfect by the application of air on both sides of a thin flame. So likewise a small flame is whiter and more luminous than a larger; and a short snuff of a candle, giving out less combustible matter in proportion to the circumambient air, the quantity of light becomes increased to eight or ten times what a long snuff would have afforded.

FLAMINGO, a bird, otherwise called phoenicopterus. See PHONICOPTERUS. FLAMSTEED (JOHN), in biography, an eminent English astronomer, being indeed the first astronomer royal, for whose use the Royal Observatory was built at Greenwich, thence called Flamsteed House. He was born at Denby, in Derbyshire, the 19th of August, 1646. He was educated at the free school of Derby, where his father lived, and at fourteen years of age was afflicted with a severe illness, which rendered his constitution tender ever after, and prevent ed him then from going to the university, for which he was intended. He nevertheless prosecuted his school education with the best effect; and then, in 1662, on quitting the grammar-school, he pursued the natural bent of his genius, which led him to the study of astronomy, and closely perused Sacrobosco's book "De Sphæra," which fell in his way, and which laid the ground-work of all that mathematical and astronominal knowledge, for which he became afterwards so justly famous. He next procured other more modern books of the same kind, and, among them, Street's "Astronomia Carolina," then lately published, from which he learned to calculate eclipses and the planets' places. Some of these being shewn to a Mr. Halton, a considerable mathematician, he lent him Riccioli's "Almagestum Novum," and Kepler's "Tabula Rudolphina," which he profited much by. In 1669, having calculated some remarkable eclipses of the moon, he sent them to Lord Brounc

ker, president of the Royal Society, which were greatly approved by that learned body, and procured him a letter of thanks from Mr. Oldenburgh, their Secretary, and another from Mr. John Collins, with whom, and other learned men, Mr. Flamsteed for a long time afterwards kept up a correspondence by let. ters, on literary subjects.

In 1670, his father observing he held correspondence with these ingenious gentlemen, advised him to take a journey to London, to make himself perfectly acquainted with them; an offer which he gladly embraced, and visited Mr. Oldenburgh and Mr. Collins, who introduced him to Sir Jonas Moore, which proved the means of his greatest honour and preferment: he here got the knowledge and practice of astronomical instruments, as telescopes, micrometers, &c. On his return, he called at Cambridge, and visited Dr. Barrow, Mr. Isaac Newton, and other learned men there, and entered himself a student of Jesus College. In 1672, he extracted several observations from Mr. Gascoigne's and Mr. Crabtree's letters, which improved him greatly in dioptrics. In this year he made many celestial observations, which, with calculations of the appulses of the moon and planets to fixed stars for the year following, he sent to Mr. Oldenburgh, who published them in the Philosophical Transactions."

1673, Mr. Flamsteed wrote a small tract concerning the true diameters of all the planets, when at their greatest and least distances from the earth, which he lent to Mr. Newton in 1685, who made some use of it in the fourth book of his "Principia." In 1674, he wrote an ephemeris to show the falsity of astrology, and the ignorance of those who pretended to it; with calculations of the moon's rising and setting; also occultations and appulses of the moon and planets to the fixed stars. which, at Sir Jonas Moore's request, he added a table of the moon's southings for that year; from which, and from Philips's Theory of the Tides," the high-waters being computed, he found the times come very near. In 1674, too, he drew up an account of the tides for the use of the king. Sir Jonas also shewed the King, and the Duke of York, some barometers and thermometers that Mr. Flamsteed had given him, with the

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