G, fifth consonant of our alphabet; but

In grammar, the seventh letter and

in the Greek, and all the Oriental languages, it occupies the third place. It is one of the mutes, and cannot be sounded without the assistance of some vowel. Its sound is formed by shutting the teeth gently together, so as scarce to touch, by a small incurvation of the sides of the tongue upwards, with the top touching the palate, at the same time that the breath is pretty strongly pressed through the lips a little opened.

In English it has a hard and soft sound; hard, as in the word game, gun, &c.; and soft, as in the word gesture, giant, &c.; at the end of words gh are pronounced like ff, as in the words rough, tough, &c The letter g is also used in many words where the sound is not perceived, as in sign, reign, &c.

As a numeral, G was anciently used to denote 400; and with a dash over it, thus, G,400,000. In music it is the character or mark of the treble cleff; and from its being placed at the head, or marking the first sound in Guido's scale, the whole scale took the name gamut.

GABEL, a word met with in old records, signifying a tax, rent, custom, or service, paid to the king, or other lord.

GABEL, according to the French duties or customs, a tax upon salt, which makes the second article in the king's revenue, and amounts to about one-fourth part of the whole revenue of the kingdom.

GABION, in fortification, is a kind of basket, made of osier-twigs, of a cylindrical form, having different dimensions, according to what purpose it is used for. Some gabions are five or six feet high, and three feet in diameter: these serve in sieges to carry on the approaches under cover, when they come pretty near the fortification. Those used in field-works are three or four feet high, and two and a half or three feet diameter. There are also gabions about one foot high, 12 inches diameter at top, and from eight to ten at bottom, which are placed along the top of the parapet, to cover the troops in firing over it; they are filled with earth. In order to make them, some picquets, three or four feet long, are stuck into the ground, in form of a circle, and of a proper diameter, wattled together with small

branches in the manner of common fences. Batteries are often made of gabions.

GAD, among miners, a small punch of iron, with a long wooden handle, used to break up the ore.

One of the miners holds this in his hand, directing the point to a proper place, while the other drives it into the vein by striking it with a sledge hammer.

GAD fly, or BREEZE fly, names given to a species of Estrus. See ŒESTRUS.

GADUS, the cod, in natural history, a genus of fishes of the order Jugulares. Generic character: the head smooth; gill membrane, seven-rayed; body oblong, covered with deciduous scales; fins all covered by the common skin; more than one dorsal fin, of which the rays are unarmed; ventral fins slender and ending in a point. There are twenty-three spesies, of which we shall notice those which follow:

G. morhua, or the common cod, inhabits the northern seas, both of Europe and America, in innumerable shoals, and constitutes an important article of human subsistence. Its general length is from two or three feet, and its common weight from fourteen to thirty pounds. It has occasionally however been known to weigh upwards of seventy. Its food consists of small fish, worms, crabs, and other testaceous fishes, and its voracity is extraordinary. It is prolific in the extreme, no less than a million of eggs having been counted in a single roe. Its sound, or air-bladder, is preserved with salt, and considered as a luxury; it is also converted into a sort of isinglass, in preparing which the inhabitants of Iceland are particularly skilful. Off the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New England, and, more especially, on the great sand-bank off Newfoundland, this fish is found in inexhaustible abundance; the neighbourhood of the Polar Seas, where they return to deposit their spawn, and the immense number of worms to be found in these sandy bottoms, being the grand inducements to their preference of these situations. They are abundant also on the southern and western coasts of Iceland, but proceed towards the south only in very diminished numbers, and are rarely seen in that direction beyond the Straights

of Gibraltar. Before the discovery of Newfoundland, in 1496, Iceland was the principal scene for the cod fishery, which was speedily after that event transferred to Newfoundland, where it is conducted to such an extent, merely by the hook, baited with the herring and other small fishes, as to furnish employment for fifteen thousand British seamen, and to a more numerous portion of population at home, occupied on the various articles of manufacture, indispensible for a concern of such vast extent and importance.

C. aeglefinus, or the haddock, is distinguished from every other species by its forked tail, and by having the lower jaw longer than the upper. These fishes abound in the northern seas, and are found at particular seasons on particular coasts, to which they approach in shoals of several miles in length. On the coasts of Yorkshire they are particularly abundant in the season, which has been known to commence on the same day of the month in two successive years.

Three men will not unfrequently, dur. ing the continuance of these fishes on the coast, take three tons of them in a day: and they have been often sold to the poor for the low price of a half-penny a score. In stormy weather the haddock shelters itself in the mud at the bottom. Its general length is eighteen inches, and weight two pounds and a half.

G. merlangus, or the whiting, is, generally, about twelve inches long, and is elegantly formed. It abounds in the northern seas, and is found in some parts of the Mediterranean. In the spring, whitings are caught on the British coasts in immense abundance, and they are considered by many as preferable for the table to every other species of the cod genus. Their favourite food consists of sprats and herrings.

G. pollachius, or the pollack, is found in the Baltic and Northern Seas, and on the coast of England also, in vast shoals, during the summer, at which time these fishes are so prone to catch at any thing on the surface of the water, that they may be caught only with a hook and feather. In the most boisterous and tempestuous weather they are strong enough to keep their situation, and resist the impetuosity of the waves. Their general weight is from two to four pounds.

G. merluccius, or the hake, is usually from one to two feet in length. It is found in the Mediterraneam and Northern seas, and abounds on the English coast, VOL. V.

and still more on that of Ireland; and to the poor of these countries is a considerable article of food. Being, however, a coarse fish, it is rarely seen at the tables of the opulent. They feed principally on the mackrel and herring. On the coasts of Brittany an extensive hake fishery is carried on, and almost always by night. On the coast of Waterford six men would, in the course of a single night, take a thousand of these fishes with a rod and line.

G. molva, or the ling (a word implying length) is generally from three to four feet in length, and has, occasionally, been seen of seven. These fishes are found in the depths of the Northern Seas, and constitute à considerable article of merchandize in Great Britain itself. Great numbers are salted and preserved for home consumption, as well as for exportation, for the last of which it is required by sta tute, that in order to any persons being entitled to the bounty on sending them abroad, they should measure twenty-two inches exclusively of the head. During their continuance in season, their liver is white and oily, but as they decline, these qualities proportionably diminish, and at length totally disappear.

G. lota, or the burbot, is to be met with in various parts, both of Europe and Asia, frequenting clear streams and lakes. In the Trent and Witham rivers, and in the fens of Lincolnshire, it is also highly abundant. Its food consists of almost all the smaller fishes, and also of worms and frogs. Its general weight is between two and three pounds, and it is regarded as excellent for the table. Its liver is partia cularly celebrated, as furnishing the most luxurious banquet.

GADOLINITE, in mineralogy, a me tallic fossil, first discovered by Dr. Gado lin, from whom it is named; it is also call. ed yttria from Ytterby, where it is found; its colour is black, passing into brownish black; it occurs massive, is shining, and its lustre is vitreous; fracture conchoidal; it is hard, scratches quartz slightly, is opaque, brittle, and of a specific gravity 4.05; it attracts the magnetic needle When pulverized and heated with dilute nitric acid, it is converted into a yellowish-grey thick jelly. It decrepitates before the blow pipe, assumes a redish white colour, and remains unfused if the fragments are not very minute; with borax it is converted into a yellow-coloured glass. A new earth, to which the name of yttria has been given, has been discovered in it; according to Vauquelin it consists of Ii.

It has been found no where but at Ytterby, in Sweden.

GÆRTNERA, in botany, in memory of Joseph Gartner, M. D. F. R. S. a genus of the Decandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character: calyx five-parted, the leaflets having on the outside a single marginal gland; corolla fivepetalled, somewhat unequal, tooth-letted, furnished with very short claws; seed vessel nearly globose, with four wings. There is but one species, viz. G. racemosa, a native of the East Indies, in the Circar mountains.

GAFF, in naval affairs, a sort of boom used in small ships, to extend the upper edge of the mizen, and employed for the same purpose on those sails, whose foremost edges are joined to the masts by hoops or lacings, and which are usually extended by a boom below; such are the main-sails of sloops, brigs, and schooners. Gaff top-sail, is a light quadrilateral sail, the head being extended on a small gaff, which hoists on the top-mast, and the foot spreading from the throat to the extent of the lower gaff.

GAGE, in the sea language. When one ship is to windward of another, she is said to have the weather-gage of her. They likewise call the number of feet that a vessel sinks in the water, the ship's gage: this they find by driving a nail into a pike near the end, and putting it down beside the rudder till the nail catch hold under it; then as many feet as the pike is under water is the ship's gage.

GAGE, among letter-founders, a piece of box or other hard wood, variously notch-⚫ ed; the use of which is to adjust the dimensions, slopes, &c. of the different sorts of letters.

GAGE, sliding, a tool used by mathematical instrument makers, for measuring and setting off distances. It is also of use in letter-cutting, and making of moulds.

GAHNIA, in botany, so named in honour of Henry Gahn, a genus of the Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Essential character: glumę two valved, irregu

lar; nectary two-valved, involving the filaments; stigma dichotomous. There are two species.

GAINAGE, in old law books, properly signifies the plough-tackle, or implements of husbandry; but is also used for the grain or crop of ploughed lands.

GALANTHUS, in botany, snow-drop, a genus of the Hexandria Monogynia class and order. Natural order of Spathaceæ, Narcissi, Jussieu. Essential character: petals three, concave; nectary of three small emarginate petals; stigma simple. There is but one species, viz. G. nivalis, snow-drop.

GALARDIA, in botany, a genus of the Syngenesia Polygamia Frustranea class and order. Natural order of Corymbiferæ. Essential character: receptacle chaffy; seed crowned with the five-leaved calycle; calyx of two rows of scales almost equal. There is only one species, viz. G. alterni-folia.

GALAX, in botany, a genus of the Pentandria Monogynia class and order Essential character: calyx ten-leaved; corolla salver-shaped; capsule one-celled, two-valved, elastic. There is but one species, viz. G. aphylla.

GALAXIA, in botany, a genus of the Monadelphia Triandria class and order. Natural order of Ensatæ. Irides, Jussieu. Essential character: spathe one-valved; corolla one-petalled, six-cleft; tube capillary; stigma many-parted. There are two species, both natives of the Cape of Good Hope.

GALAXY, in astronomy. A very remarkable appearance in the heavens is that called the galaxy, or the milky-way. This is a broad circle, sometimes double, but for the most part single, surrounding the whole celestial concave. We perceive also in different parts of the heavens small white spots, which appear to be of the same nature with the milky-way. These spots are called ne

bulæ.

With a powerful telescope, Dr. Herschel first began to survey the via lactea, and found that it completely resolved the whitish appearance into stars, which the telescope he formerly used had not power enough to do. The portion he first observed was that about the hand and club of Orion; and found therein an astonishing multitude of stars, whose number he endeavoured to estimate, by counting many fields, and computing from a mean of these how many might be contained in a given portion of the milky-way. In the most vacant place to be met with in

that neighbourhood, he found 63 stars; other six fields contained 110, 60, 70, 90, 70, and 74 stars; a mean of all which gave 79 for the number of stars to each field; and thus he found, that by allowing 15 minutes for the diameter of his field of view, a belt of 15 degress long and two broad, which he had often seen pass before his telescope in an hour's time, could not contain less than 50,000 stars, large enough to be distinctly numbered; besides which, he suspected twice as many more, which could be seen only now and then by faint glimpses, for want of sufficient light. The success he had within the milky-way soon induced him to turn his telescope to the nebulous parts of the heavens, of with an accurate list had been published in the "Connoisance des Temps, for 1783 and 1784." Most of these yielded to a Newtonian reflector, of 20 feet focal distance, and 12 inches aperture; which plainly discovered them to be composed of stars, or at least to contain stars, and to show every other indication of its consisting of them entirely.

"The nebula (says he) are arranged in strata, and run on to a great length, and some of them I have been able to pursue, and to guess pretty well at their form and direction. It is probable enough that they may surround the whole starry sphere of the heavens, not unlike the milky-way, which undoubtedly is nothing but a stratum of fixed stars: and as this latter immense starry bed is not of equal breadth or lustre in every part, nor runs on in one straight direction, but is curved, and even divided into two streams along a very considerable portion of it, we may likewise expect the greatest variety in the strata of the cluster of stars and nebula. One of these nebulous beds is so rich, that in passing through a section of it in the time of only 36 minutes, I have detected no less than 31 nebula, all distinctly visible upon a fine blue sky. Their situation and shape, as well as condition, seem to denote the greatest variety imaginable. In another stratum, or perhaps a different branch of the former, I have often seen double and treble nebulæ variously arranged; large ones, with small seeming attendants; narrow, but much extended lucid nebula or bright dashes; some of the shape of a fan, resembling an electric brush issuing from a lucid point; others of the cometic shape, with a seeming nucleus in the centre, or like cloudy stars, surrounded with a nebulous atmosphere: a different sort, again, contain a nebulosity of the milky

kind, like that wonderful inexplicable phenomenon about Orion is; while others shine with a fainter mottled kind of light, which denotes their being resolvable into

stars.

"It is very probable that the great stratum, called the milky-way, is that in which the sun is placed, though perhaps not in the very centre of its thickness. We gather this from the appearance of the galaxy, which seems to encompass the whole heavens, as it certainly must do, if the sun is within the same; for, suppose a number of stars arranged between two parallel planes, indefinitely extended every way, but at a given considerable distance from one another, and calling this a sideral stratum, an eye placed somewhere within it will see all the stars in the direction of the planes of the stratum projected into a great circle, which will appear lucid, on account of the accumulation of the stars, while the rest of the heavens, at the sides, will only seem to be scattered over with constellations, more or less crowded, according to the distance of the planes, or number of stars, contained in the thickness or sides of the stratum."

GALBANUM, in pharmacy, is obtained from the bubon galbanum, a plant found in Africa. By cutting the plant across, a milky juice flows out, which soon hardens, and constitutes galbanum. It is brought here from the Levant, in small pieces, agglutinated together; its taste is acrid, and its smell strong; the specific gravity is 1.2. It is partly soluble in water and alcohol, and when distilled, it yields about half its weight of volatile oil, which is of a bluish colour.

GALBULA, the jacamar, in natural history, a genus of birds of the order Picæ. Generic character: bill strait, very long, quadrangular, and pointed; nostrils situated near the base of the bill, and oval; tongue pointed and short; legs feathered before, down to the toes; feet formed for climbing. There are four species.

G. alcedo, is about the size of a lark, and is of a most elegant and brilliant plumage. It is found in the damp places of the woods of Guiana and Brazil, feeding on insects, and is of very solitary and sequestered habits, continuing motionless on its perch during the whole night, and often also a considerable part of the day, and but rarely seen otherwise than alone. Naturalists are but imperfectly acquainted with the jacamar genus, and know nothing of its nest and eggs.