erel season; the other in September, at the beginning of the herring season, probably in pursuit of those fish. The hake is in England esteemed a very coarse fish, and is seldom admitted to table either fresh or salted. When cured it is known by the name of Poor John. These fish are from one and a half to nearly three feet; they are of a slender make, of a pale ash color on their backs, and of a dirty white on their bellies.

G. minutus, the poor, is the smallest species yet discovered, being little more than six inches long. On the chin is a small beard; the eyes are covered with a loose membrane; on each side of the gill-covers and jaws there are nine punctures. The color on the back is a light brown; on the belly a dirty white. It is taken near Marseilles, and sometimes in such quantities as to become a nuisance; for no other kinds of fish are taken during their season. It is esteemed good, but incapable of being salted or dried. Belon says, that when it is dried in the sun, it grows as hard as horn.

G. molva, the ling, is usually from three to four feet long, but have been caught seven feet long. The body is very slender; the head flat: the upper jaw is longest; the teeth in that jaw are small and very numerous; in the lower, few, slender, and sharp: on the chin is a small beard. They vary in color, some being of an olive hue on the sides and back, others cinereous; the belly white. The ventral fins are white: the dorsal and anal edged with white. The tail is marked near the end with a transverse black bar, and tipped with white. Its English name ling is derived from its length, being a corruption of long. It abounds about the Scilly Isles, on the coasts of Scarborough, Scotland, and Ireland, and forms a great branch of trade. It was considerable, so long ago as the reign of Edward III. an act for regulating the price of lob, ling, and cod, being made in the thirty-first year. In the Yorkshire fens they are in perfection from the beginning of February to that of May, and some to the end of it. In June they spawn, deposit ing their eggs in the soft oozy ground of the mouth of the Tees. At that time the males separate from the females, and resort to some rocky ground near Flamborough Head, where the fishermen take great numbers without ever finding any of the female fish among them. While a ling is in season its liver is very white, and abounds with a fine flavored oil; but as soon as it goes out of season, the liver becomes as red as that of a bullock, and affords no oil. The same happens to the cod and other fish in a certain degree, but not so remarkably as in the ling. When in perfection, a very large quantity of oil may be melted out of the liver by a slow fire; but if a violent sudden heat be used for that purpose, they yield very little. Vast quantities of ling are salted for exportation as well as for home consumption. To be split, or cut for curing, it must measure twenty-six inches or upwards from the shoulder to the tail; if less than that, it is not reckoned a sizeable fish, and consequently not entitled to the bounty on exportation; such are called drizzles, and are in season all summer.

G. morhua, the common cod, is cinereous on the back and sides, and commonly spotted with

yellow: the belly is white; but they vary much, both in color and shape, particularly that of the head. The side line is wide, broad, and straight till opposite the vent, when it bends towards the tail. Codlings are often taken of a yellow, orange, and even red color, while they remain among the rocks; but on changing their place assume the color of other codfish. The jaws are of an equal length, and at the end of the lower is a small beard; the teeth are disposed in the palate as well as in the jaws. The cod is found only in the northern seas; being, as Rondeletius calls it, an ocean fish, and never met with in the Mediterranean Sea. It affects cold climates and seems confined between the latitudes 66° and 50°; those caught north and south of these degrees being either bad, or in small numbers. The Greenland cod are small, and emaciated; being very voracious, and suffering in those seas a scarcity of provision. Most other species of this genus inhabit the cold seas, or such as lie within regions that can just claim the title of temperate. There is nevertheless a species found near the Canary Islands, called cherny, which are said to be better than the Newfoundland kind. The great rendezvous of the cod fish is on the banks of Newfoundland, and the other sand-banks off the coasts of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, and New England. See our article FISHERIES.

G. mustela, the five-bearded cod, very much resembles the lota. The beards on the upper jaw are four, viz. two at the very end of the nose, and two a little above them: on the end of the lower jaw is a single one. The fish are of a deep olive brown, their belly whitish. They grow to the same size as the lota.

G. pollachius, the pollack, has the under jaw longer than the upper; the head and body rise pretty high, as far as the first dorsal fin. The side line is incurvated, rising towards the middle of the back, then sinking and running straight to the tail; it is broad and of a brown color. The color of the back is dusky, sometimes inclining to green: the sides beneath the lateral line are marked with lines of yellow; and the belly is white. This species is common on many of our rocky coasts: during summer they are seen in great shoals frolicking on the surface of the water, and flinging themselves into a thousand forms. They will then bite at any thing that appears on the top of the waves, and are often taken with a goose feather fixed to the hook. They are very strong, being observed to keep their station at the feet of the rocks in the most turbulent and rapid sea. They do not grow to a very large size; the biggest seldom exceed six or seven pounds, but some have been taken near Scarborough, during winter, that weighed nearly twenty-eight pounds. They are there called leets.

G. toricius, the torsk, tusk, or brismack, is a northern fish; and as yet not discovered lower than about the Orkneys, and even there it is rather scarce. In the seas about Shetland, it swarms, and forms (barrelled or dried) a considerable article of commerce. The length is about twenty inches, the greatest depth four and a half; the head is small; the upper jaw a little longer than the lower; both jaws furnished with

many small teeth; on the chin is a small single beard: from the head to the dorsal fin is a deep furrow. The color of the head is dusky: the back and sides yellow; belly white; edges of the dorsal, anal, and caudal fins, white, the other parts dusky; the pectoral fins brown.

GAELIC LANGUAGE, the language of the ancient and modern Highlanders of Scotland. See HIGHLANDERS It is esteemed the most ancient as well as the purest dialect of the Celtic, now spoken. It has all the marks of an original language. Most of its words are expressive of some property or quality in the objects which they denote. This, with the variety of its sounds (many of which, especially those that express the soft and mournful passions, are peculiar to it), renders it highly adapted for poetry. It was the language of the Scottish court, till the reign of Malcolm Canmore, and was even spoken so late as that of Robert Bruce, particularly in a parliament held by him at Ardchattan. Its alphabet consists of eighteen letters, of which five are vowels. Those who understand it,' says Dr. James Robertson, of Callander, know its energy and power; the ease with which it is compounded; the boldness of its figures; and its tenderness in expressing the finest feelings of the human heart. But its genius and constitution, the structure of its nouns and verbs, and the affinity has to some other languages are not so much attended to. These point at a very remote era, and seem to deduce its origin from a very high antiquity. The verbs have only three tenses, which is the simplest and most natural division of time. The persons of each tense are distinguished, by adding pronominal particles to each person. The third person singular of each verb has genders, or admits of a masculine and feminine particle affixed. The moods are the indicative, imperative, and infinitive. The subjunctive differs from the indicative only by the addition of one syllable to the verb, and a conjunction before it. The imperative has only the second person in both numbers. The infinitive is often used as a substantive noun, expressive of the abstract signification of the verb. There is only one conjugation and one declension. The cases of the nouns are marked by different particles, or by a change of the last Vowel. The degrees or comparison are formed by placing certain syllables before the adjective; and the superlative frequently by a repetition of the positive.' These and other peculiarities of the Gaelic language are illustrated by Dr. Robertson in Sir J. Sinclair's Statistical Account of Scotland, vol. xi. p. 611-619, to which we refer the reader.

GAERTNER, an eminent naturalist, born at Calu, in Suabia, in 1732. His father was physician to the duke of Wirtemberg, and Joseph, being destined for the church, received his education and studied theology at the University of Tubingen; but, discovering a strong inclination to natural history and mathematics, he changed his profession, and applied to medicine. From Tubingen he removed to Gottingen, where he attended the lectures of Haller. He afterwards travelled through various parts of Europe, and, on his return to his own country, took the degree

of M. D. In 1759 he went to Leyden, where he was particularly attentive to the botanical lectures, and about the same time applied himself to vegetable anatomy; in the prosecution of which he went to England, and gained the friendship of some of the most eminent men of the age. Here he communicated some interesting papers to the Philosophical Transactions, the principal of which is a Memoir on the Fructification and Propagation of Confervæ, &c., and was admitted F.R. S. In 1768 he went to Petersburg, where he was appointed professor of botany and natural history; a place which he filled with the greatest credit, and explored the whole Ukraine for botanical discoveries; but he returned to his native place in 1770. In 1778 he again visited London, for the purpose of making drawings and descriptions of fruits, to illustrate the great work in which he was then engaged, his Carpology, the first volume of which he dedicated to Sir Joseph Banks. He died in 1791, leaving many valuable MSS.

GAETA, a town, promontory, and gulf of Naples, in the Terra di Lavoro. The town lies along the shore, from the centre of the bay to the point of the promontory, and is a bishop's see; it contains a cathedral and nine churches. The cathedral is finely proportioned and well lighted, but not large. Opposite the great portal is an antique column, marked with the names of the winds in Greek and Latin, and the font is a fine antique of white marble, with bas reliefs. The streets are well built, and paved: and the environs extremely picturesque. The tomb of Minutius Plaucus, now a battlemented tower called Torre d'Orlando, stands on a bold eminence in the narrow neck that unites the promontory or peninsula of Gaeta to the continent. Buonaparte conferred the title of duke of Gaeta on Gaudir his finance minister in 1809. Population 15,000. It is forty miles north-west of Naples.

GÆTULI, the people of Gætulia, were among the earliest inhabitants of Africa. They were distinguished by different epithets; as Nigri, Autololæ, Dare, and Baniuræ.-Pliny. They were a rough, unpolished, roving people, living on venison and the spontaneous productions of the earth, and resting in the first places in which night surprised them.

GAFF, n.s. Fr.gaffe, a harpoon, or large GAFFER, n. s. hook; Sax. gefeɲe, companion, says Dr. Johnson after Junius: others that it is a corruption of Sax. gowfather, or gefa'der: a word of respect now obsolete, and used only in 'contempt or ridicule.

For gaffer Treadwell told us by the bye, Excessive sorrow.is exceeding dry. Gay's Pastorals. GAFF, a sort of boom or bole, frequently used in small ships, to extend the upper edge of the mizen; and always employed for the same purpose on those sails, whose foremast edges are joined to the mast by hoops, or lacings, and which are usually extended by a boom below. Such are the main sails of all sloops, brigs, and schooners.

GAFFAREL (James), a learned French divine, born at Mannes in Provence, about 1606. He acquired great skill in the oriental languages, and

in the cabbalistic and occult sciences, which he exposed and ridiculed. Cardinal Richelieu made him his librarian, and sent him into Italy to collect the best books and MSS. He published a work called Curiositez Inouiés, i. e. Unheard of Curiosities. He died in 1681, aged eighty, leaving an unfinished account of the caves, grottoes, vaults, catacombs, and mines, he had met with in thirty years' travels. GAFFLES, n. s. Sax. gapelucar, spears. Artificial spurs put on fighting cocks: a steel contrivance to bend cross-bows.

GAFSA, a southern town of Tunis, anciently Caspa, bordering on the Bled el Jereede. It formed one of the fortresses of Numidia, and is situated on a rising ground, surrounded with plantations of olives, almonds, pistachios, &c. These plantations are supplied with water from two fountains, one in the citadel, and the other in the city, in forming which, and the baths connected, great labor appears to have been employed. The citadel, is now a poor modern building; but the walls of many of the houses exhibit altars, granite pillars, entablatures, &c. It is 140 miles S. S. W. of Tunis.

GAG, v. n. & n. s. Belg. gaghel, the palate; or (Belg.) kau wegge, a jaw-wedge.-Thomson. To stop the mouth, and prevent utterance, whilst it allows breathing: the instrument with which

this is done.

He's out of his guard already; unless you laugh and minister occasion to him, he is gagged. Shakspeare. Twelfth Night. Some, when the kids their dams too deeply drain, With gags and muzzles their soft mouths restrain. Dryden.

Your woman would have run up stairs before me; but I have secured her below with a gag in her chaps. Id.

There foamed rebellious logick, gagged and bound.
Pope.

GAGE, n. s. & v. a. Fr. gage, a pledge; security. The past participle of Sax. gægeian, to close up,' says Mr. Tooke, 'gage-bound, that by, which one is bound to fulfil certain engagements. Rule or measure, especially of liquids, hence it is used as expressive of engagements and obligations, to which pledges and securities are annexed: to take the contents of vessels of liquid,

to form an estimate.

But since it was decreed, auspicious king, In Britain's right that thou should'st wed the main, Heaven, as a gage, would cast some previous thing, And therefore doomed that Lawson should be slain. Dryden.

In any truth, that gets not possession of our minds by self-evidence or demonstration, the arguments that gain it assent, are the vouchers and gage of its probability. Locke.

Young.

I am made the cautionary pledge, The gage and hostage of your keeping it. Southern. One judges, as the weather dictatés, right The poem is at noon, and wrong at night; Another judges by a surer gage, An author's principles or parentage. GAGE is also used for a challenge to combat. See CARTEL. It was a pledge which the accuser or challenger cast on the ground, and the other took up as accepting the challenge; being usu ally a glove, gauntlet, chaperoon, or the liks.

See BATTLE.

GAGE, among letter founders, a piece of box, or other hard wood, variously notched: used to adjust the dimensions, slopes, &c., of the different sorts of letters.

'GAGE, in joinery, an instrument made to strike a line truly parallel to the straight side of any board or piece of stuff. Its chief use is for gaging of tenons, to fit into mortises; and for gaging stuff of an equal thickness. It is made of an oval piece of wood, fitted upon a square stick, to slide up and down stiffly thereon, and with a tooth, at the end of the staff, to score, to strike a line upon the stuff at any distance, according to the distance of the oval from it.

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

by Dr. Hales to find the different degrees of GAGE, BUCKET SEA, an instrument contrived depths. It consists of a common household pail coolness and saltness of the sea, at different

round hole in the middle, about four inches in diaor bucket, with two heads; which have each a meter, covered with square valves opening upwards; and, that they may both open and shut together, there is a small iron rod fixed to the upper part of the lower valve, and the other end to the lower side of the upper valve. So that as the bucket descends with its sinking weight into the sea, both the valves may open by the force of the water, which thus has a free passage througn the bucket. But, when the bucket is drawn up, then both the valves are shut by the force of the water at the upper part of the bucket; so that the bucket is drawn up full of the lowest sea water to which it has descended. When the bucket is drawn up, the mercurial thermometer fixed in it is examined; but great care must be taken to observe the degree at which the mercury stands, before the lower part of the thermometer

is taken out of the water in the bucket, lest it be affected by the different temperature of the air. To keep the bucket in a right position, there are four cords fixed to it, reaching about three feet below it; to which the sinking weight is fixed. Dr. Hook also constructed an instrument for the same purpose for a representation of which see plate GAGES, fig. 1. This consists of a square wooden bucket C, whose bottoms are so contrived, that as the weight A sinks, the iron B, to which the bucket C is fastened by two handles D, D, on the end of which are the moveable bottoms or valves E, E, and thereby draws down the bucket, the resistance of the water keeps up the bucket in the posture C, whereby the water, whilst the bucket is descending, has a free passage through it; whereas, as soon as the bucket is pulled upwards by the line F, the resistance of the water to that motion beats the bucket downwards, and keeps it in the posture G, whereby the included water is kept from getting out, and the ambient water kept from getting in. There is also an instrument of this name invented by Dr. Hales and Dr. Desaguliers for finding the depth of the sea; the description of which is this: AB, plate GAGES fig. 2, is the gage bottie, in which is cemented the gage-tube Ff in the brass cape at G. The upper end of the tube F is hermetically sealed, and the open lower end f is immersed in mercury, marked C, on which swims a small thickness or surface of treacle. On the top of the bottle is screwed a tube of brass HG, pierced with several holes to admit the water into the bottle AB. The body. K is a weight hanging by its shank L, in a socket N, with a notch on one side at m, in which locks the catch of the spring S, and passing through the hole L, in the shank of the weight K, prevents its falling out when once hung on. On the top, in the upper part of the brass tube at H, is fixed a large empty ball, or full-blown bladder I, which must not be so large, but that the weight K may be able to sink the whole under water. The instrument thus constructed is used in the following manner:-' -The weight K being hung on, the gage is let fall into deep water, and sinks to the bottom: the socket N is somewhat longer than the shank L; and therefore, after the weight K comes to the bottom, the gage will continue to descend till the lower part of the socket strikes against the weight; this gives liberty to the catch to fly out of the hole L, and let go the weight K; when this is done, the ball or bladder I instantly buoys up the gage to the top of the water. While the gage is under water, the water having free access to the treacle and mercury in the bottle, will by its pressure force it up into the tube Ff, and the height to which it has been forced by the greatest pressure, viz. that at the bottom, will be shown by the mark in the tube which the treacle leaves behind it, and which is the only use of the treacle. This shows into what space the whole air in the tube Ff'is compressed; and consequently the height or depth of water which by its weight produced that compression, which is the thing required. If the gage-tube Ff be of glass, a scale might be drawn on it with the point of a diamond, showing, by inspection, what height the water stands above the bottom. But the

length of ten inches is not sufficient for fathoming depths at sea, since that, when all the air in such a length of tube is compressed into half an inch, the depth of water is no more than 634 feet, which is not half a quarter of a mile. If, to remedy this, we make use of a tube fifty inches long, which for strength may be a musket barrel, and suppose the air compressed into 100dth part of half an inch; then by saying, as 1: 99:: 400: 39,600 inches, or 3300 feet; even this is but little more than half a mile, or 2640 feet. But since it is reasonable to suppose the cavities of the sea bear some proportion to the mountainous parts of the land, some of which are more than three miles above the earth's surface; therefore to explore such great depths, the Dr. contrived a new form for his sea gage, or rather for the gagetube in it, as follows: BCDF, fig. 3, is a hollow metalline globe communicating on the top with a long tube A B, whose capacity is a ninth part of that globe On the lower part, at D, it has also a short tube DE, to stand in the mercury and treacle. The air contained in the compound gage-tube is compressed by the water as before; but the degree of compression, or height to which the treacle has been forced, cannot there be seen through the tube; therefore, to answer that end, a slender rod of metal or wood, with a knob on the top of the tube A B, will receive the mark of the treacle and show it when taken out. If the tube A B be fifty inches long, and of sucha bore that every inch in length should be a cubic inch of air, and the contents of the globe and tube together 500 cubic inches; then, when the air is compressed within 100dth part of the whole, it is evident the treacle will not approach nearer than five inches of the top of the tube,which will agree to the depth of 3300 feet of water as above. Twice this depth will compress the air into half that space nearly, viz. two inches and a half, which correspond to 6600, which is a mile and a quarter. Again, half that space, or one inch and a quarter, will show double the former depth, viz. 13,200 feet, or two miles and a half; which is probably very nearly the greatest depth of the sea.

GAGE, A SLIDING, tool used by mathematical instrument-makers for measuring and setting off distances.

GAGE, TIDE, is the name of an instrument used for determining the height of the tides by M. Bayly, in the course of a voyage towards the South Pole, &c., in the Resolution and Adventure, in 1772, 1773, 1774, and 1775. This instrument consists of a glass tube, whose internal diameter was seven-tenths of an inch, lashed fast to a tenfeet rod, divided into feet, inches, and quarters: this rod was fastened to a strong post fixed upright and firm in the water. At the lower end of the tube was an exceedingly small aperture, through which the water was admitted. In consequence of this construction, the surface of the water in the tube was so little affected by the agitation of the sea, that its height was not altered one-tenth of an inch, when the swell of the sea was two feet.

GAGE, WIND, an instrument for measuring the force of the wind upon any given surface. It was invented by Dr. Lind, who gives the follow