Page:Collier's New Encyclopedia v. 08.djvu/509

LEFT SKAGEN CAPE 445 SKATING year of his vigorous government made an immense and beneficial change. Before the end of 1585 Sixtus published a bull of excommunication against Henry of Na- varre and the Prince of Conde. After the murder of the Duke of Guise and the Cardinal of Lorraine, he cited Henry III. of France to Rome, and on his non-ap- pearance excommunicated him. During the five years of his pontificate Sixtus formed and executed many great designs for the improvement and adornment of Rome. He caused the famous granite obelisks which Caligula had brought from Egypt to be set up on a pedestal; com- pleted a great aqueduct for the supply of Rome with water; rebuilt the library of the Vatican, and established the cele- brated printing office in connection with it; and yet left the treasury rich. Sixtus confirmed the order of "Feuillants"; es- tablished or reformed many congrega- tions for the management of secular or ecclesiastical affairs, and fixed the num- ber of cardinals at 70. He died in Rome, Aug. 27, 1590. SKAGEN, CAPE, or THE SKAW, the extreme N. point of the province of Jut- land, Denmark. A lighthouse, 67 feet high, built by Frederick II. in 1564, is situated on the cape. The village of Ska- gen, close by, has 2,000 inhabitants. SKAGER RACK, a broad arm of the German Ocean, which washes Norway on the N., Jutland on the S., and Sweden on the E., where it communicates with the Cattegat; length, W. S. W. to E. N. E., about 150^ miles; breadth, 80 miles. Its depth varies from 30 to upward of 400 fathoms. There are several good harbors on the Norwegian and Swedish coasts. SKAGWAY, a town on Chilkat Inlet, Alaska; at the head of Lynn canal, and at the entrance to the White Pass. It is a result of expeditions to the Yukon gold fields in 1897, when the White Pass began to be used as a means of reaching the Klondike and its vicinity. Skagway is a landing-place for steamers and a distrib- uting point for supplies to and from the Canadian Klondike. Its name is derived from the Indian name of a river which flows into the sea near the town. Pop. (1920) 494. SKATE, in ichthyology, the popular name of any individual of a section of the genus Rata, differing from the rays proper in having a long pointed snout. R. batis, the true skate, is one of the commonest fishes in European waters, and attains a large size. The upper part of the body is dusky gray or mottled. The long-nosed skate^ (R. vomer), between four and five feet in length, has the snout excessively CC- prolonged. The Burton skate (R. mar- ginata) is thicker and heavier than the true skate, and is frequently eight feet SKATE long; the shagreen skate, or Ray (R. fullonica), is rather less than three feet long. SKATING, progression on ice accom- plished by means of instruments com- posed of steel blades which are fastened to the soles of the boot, and which are called skates. In early times the shin- bones of animals were bound to the feet, and skaters glided over the frozen surface on these by propelling themselves with the aid of a spiked stick. At a later period the iron or steel blades were introduced, the cutting edge of which enabled the wearer to dispense with the stick, and to push off with one foot and glide on the other with alternate strokes. Skates are now of two kinds — viz., those made for speed skating and those for figure skat- ing. Both were formerly constructed by inserting the steel blade into a wooden bed, which was approximately shaped to the foot and bound to it by means of leather straps. Modern skates are made entirely of metal, and are fixed either by screws passing through plates (to which the blade is attached) into the sole of the boot, which form of skate is known as the Mount Charles; or they are fixed to the- boot by various mechanical devices which enable the skate to be quickly and firmly attached to the boot, and as quickly re- moved. ■Cyc Vol 8