Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 1.djvu/828

 G R O

G R O

them with their meats. When eaten Frefh they inflame the mouth and throat, and endanger fuffbeation. Phil. Tranf. N°8q.

GROSSBEAK, in zoology, a name by which we commonly call the coccothrauft.es, called alfo at other times the haw- finch. See Coccothraostes.

GROSSULARIA, the goofeberry and currant bujhes. Thefe in botany make together but one genus of trees, under the common name groffularia; the characters of which are thefe. The flower is of the rofaceous kind, being compofed of feveral petals placed in a circular order, between the fegments of a one leaved cup, which is hollowed into the form of a bafon ; the hinder part of which finally becomes a globofe or oval foft fruit, containing fmall feeds. The fpecies of grofjularia, enumerated by Mr. Tournefort, are thefe. i. The common wild prickly goofeberry. 2. The cul- tivated prickly goofeberry. 3. The broad leaved prickly goofe- berry with dufky purple fruit. 4. The fmooth goofeberry with blueifh fruit. 5. The common great white goofeberry. 6. The great oblong fruited yellowifh white goofeberry, commonly called the amber goofeberry. 7. The double fruited goofe- berry without feeds. 8. The common red currant. 9. The great fruited red currant. 10. The great white garde. 1 cur- rant. 11. The tingle fruited cm-rant. 12. The fower white currant. 13. The fweet Alpine currant. 14. The black currant. 1 5. The fmooth groffularia with fmall black fruit.

16. The American groffularia with large plantain-like leaves.

17. The broad plantain-leaved American groffularia with fmall blue fruit. 18. The American groffularia with narrow hairy plantain-like leaves. 19. The fmooth plaintain-leaved American groffularia with rofe coloured flowers. See the arti- cle Gooseberry.

GROTTO (Cycl.) — The famous grotto of our own country, known by the name of Ookey Hole, lies on the fouth fide of Mendip Hills, within a mile of Wells. The entrance of it is in the fall of thofe hills, which is bcfetall about with rocks, and has near it a precipitate defcent of near twelve fathom deep, at the bottom of which there continually iffues from the rocks a confiderable current of water. The naked rocks above the entrance fhew themfelves about thirty fa- thom high, and the whole afcent of the hill above is about a mile, and is very ftccp. As you pafs into this vault, you go at firft upon a level, but advancing farther, the way is found to be rocky and uneven, fometimes attending, and fomet'nnes defcending. The roof of this cavern, in the higheft part, is about eight fathom from the ground, but in many particular places it is fo low, that a man muff, ftoop to get along. The breadth is not lefs various than the height, for in fome places it is five or fix fathoms wide, and in others not more than one or two. It extends itfelf in length about two hundred yards. People talk much of cer- tain ftones in it, refembling men and women, and other things, but there is little matter of curiofity in thefe, be- ing only fhapelefs lumps of a common fpar. At the far- theft part of the cavern there is a good ftream of water, large enough to drive a mill, which pants all along one fide of the cavern, and at length Aides down, about fix or eight fathom, among the rocks, and then prefling through the clefts of them, difcharges itfelf into the valley. The river within the cavern is well ftored with eels, and has fome trouts in it ; and thefe cannot have come from with- out, there being fo great a fall near the entrance. In dry fummers, a great number of frogs are feen all along this cavern, even to the fartheft part of it ; and on the roof of it, at certain places, hang vafr numbers of batts, as they do in almoft all caverns, the entrance of which is either level, or but (lightly afcending or defcending ; and even in the more perpendicular ones they are fometimes found, provided they are not too narrow, and are fufficiently high. The cattle that feed in the paftures, through which this river runs, have been known to die fuddenly fometimes after a flood ; this is probably owing to the waters having been impregnated, either naturally or accidentally, with lead ore. Philofoph. Obferv. N° 2. p. 2.

In the Philofophical Tranfacfions a, we have an account of a fubterranean grotto, or cavern, near Weredale, about twenty miles fouth weft of Ncwcaftle. The entry into this grotto is by a little hole in the fide of a vaft mountain, by this you enter a fpacious cavity, chambered with walls and pillars of defcending lapidefcent waters. The hollownefs is pervious farther than any yet has adventured to difcover, the darknefs of thefe caverns requiring the help of candles, which are often extinguished by the dropping water. [ a Numb. 480. p. 223.]

GROUND (Cycl.)— GrOutnd anglhrg, the art of catching fifh under water without a float, only with a plumb of lead, or a bullet. This method is moft expedient in cold weather, when the fifh fwim low. The bullet is to be placed nine inches from the baited book ; the top of the rod is to be very gentle, that the fifh may more eafily run away with the bait, and not be feared with the ftiffhefs of it. The angler in this way is not to ftrike as foon as he feels the fifh bite, but flacken his line a little, to give the fifh an opportunity to fv. allow the hook. A

The tackle here is to be fine and fiender, ftrono- and |jg lines being apt to fright the fifh. Morning and Evening are the chief feafons for the ground line for trout, but in a cloudv day, or a muddy water, you may fifh at ground from morn to night. Didf. Ruft. in voc. Ground.

Ground, among bowlers. See Bowling.

Ground, in the manege. See Terrein.

Ground ivy. See the article Ivy.

Ground pine, in medicine, &V. See Chamjepitys.

Ground plates, in architecture, are the outermoft pieces of timber lying on, or near the ground, and framed into one another with mortefles and tennons. In thefe alfo are mor- tefles made to receive the tennons of joifts, the fummers and girders ; and fometimes the trimmers for the ffair cafe and chimney way, and the binding joifts.

Ground timbers, in a fhip, are thofe timbers which lie ore her keel, and are faftened to it with bolts through the keel- fon. They are fo called, becaufe the fhip lies at reft up- on them when fhe is aground.

GROUNDAGE, a cuftom, or tribute, paid for the fland- ing of a fhip in a port. Blount.

GROUNDLING, an Englifh name for that fmall fpecies of the cobitis more commonly called the loach, and by Artedi the fmooth fpotted cobitis with the body cylindric. See the article Cobitis.

GROUNDSEL. SccErigerum.

GROUSE, in zoology, the name of the teirao, or uro«allus miner, called alfo the black game, and the heath hen? and by Turner, the moor hen. It is a large bird of the galli- naceous" kind. The male is all over black, but the ed<r CS of his feathers, cfpecially on the neck and back, have a blae- ifh gldfs mixed among the black, and its thighs are grey. The female is of the colour of the partridge, and is varie- gated with tranfverfe black lines on the back, and the breaft and belly are grey. Its beak is black and crooked. It is found in the mountainous and heathy parts of the kingdom, and is a very well tafted bird. The male and female differ fo much in colour, that fome very accurate writers on thefe fubjefts have been deceived into an opinion of their being two different fpecies of bird ; and Gefner has diftinguifhed them in this manner, calling the female of this the grygallus minor, and that of the great urogallus, or cock of the mountain, the grygallus major. Aldrovand, de Avib. Lib. 14. c. 16. Ray's Ornithol. p. 125. See Urogallus.

GROW AN, in natural hiftory, a word ufed by the miners in Cornwall to exprefs a fort of coarfe and gritty ftonc, which they are ufually obliged to dig through before they come at the veins of ore. This is ufually grey or wbitifh, but fome- times' it is of various colours, often yellowifh, and fome- times fpotted with iron colour, and an inky black ; and often its texture is fo loofe and fpungy, that there are holes in it of the fize proper to receive a pea, or a horfe bean ; thefe are fometimes empty, but more ufually they are filled up either with chalk, or with fpar. Befide the ftrata of this ftone that lie over the ore, there is alfo a large quan- tity of it often placed by its fide. They have this, and two other forts of ftone, lying in their way to the tin ore in Cornwall. The firff of the others they call moor Jlone j a. very uncertain name, as it is alfo given by fome to the com- mon white granite of that country j but the miners only - mean by it a loofe fort of freeftone, fomewhat fofter than that ufually employed in building. The other ftone is called killos. This is a grey ftone of the (late kind, eafily fplitting into thin plates, and is very full of talcky flakes. This kiltos is, however, a very indeterminate name, as well as the other, for the fame people fometimes ufe it alfo to fignify a white earth, common among them ; this laft, however, they fome- times diftinguifhed by the epithet white. The word growan feems the only name they have kept to any determinate fignification, for they never exprefs by this word any other fubftance, than the ftone above defcribed.

GROWME, in our old writers, an engine to ftretch wool- len cloth after it is woven j it is mentioned in the ftatute 43 Ed. 3. c. 10. Cowel.

GROWTH. The growth of animals, nay even of the human fpecies is fubjecl: to great variations as to the time and man- ner of it in particular inftances. We have lately had in England, an account of a boy at Willingham, who though he lived but a few years, grew fo faft as to be accounted a . prodigy ; but in the Memoirs of the Academy, there is re- corded a much more memorable inftance in France, in the year 1729. The French Academy of Sciences examined a country youth born in Normandy, whofe name was Noel Eichet, who was not only remarkable for ftature, but for ftrength alfo greatly beyond his age. He was then only feven years old, and the account his mother gave of him was, that he grew in a very uncommon manner in the firft year, and that afterwards, he encreafed fix inches in height every year to the fourth year ; that at that time the people ' of the place meafured him exactly, and found him three feet fix inches high ; and at the time the Academy meafured him he was, at feven years old, four feet eight inches and four lines high withe ut his flioes.

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