Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/471

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SHEEP-y&^VjTjr, is now made felony without benefit of clergy. See the article Cattle.

The like penalty is enacted for killing jheep, with an in- tent to ileal the fat, or any part of the carcafe, or for af- fifting in any fuch offence. Stat. 14 Geo. II. cap. 6. feet. 1.

SHEERS, aboard a fhip, a name the feamen give to two mail's yards, or poles, fet up and feized acrols each other aloft, near the top. This pair of jheers, as they call it, is placed below on the chain-wales of the fhrouds, and lamed faft to the fliip's fide, to keep them Heady aloft. Their ufe is to fet in, or take out a maft ; for which end there is fattened at the place where they crofs one another, a flrong double block with a flrap. They ferve alfo to hoife in or out, of boats that have malls, fuch goods as are wanted to be taken in or out.

SHEER-«-wf«*, in zoology, an Englifh name for a bird com- mon on our coafts, and not known by any of the common authors, nor honoured with a Latin name. It is nearly of the fize of a duck. Its head, which is large, neck and back, are of a brownifh black ; its throat, breafl and belly, white ; its legs are red. Its three fore toes are connected by a membrane, but its hinder one is loofe. Its wings are very long, and when folded reach to the end of the tail'. Its beak is flrong and fharp, and is hooked at the end. It flies very fwiftly along the furface of the water, whence it has its name. Ray's Ornitholog. p. 252.

SHEET, in the manege. See Caparason, Cycl.

SHEIK, ih the Oriental cufloms, the perfon who has the care of the mofques in Egypt ; his duty is the fame as that of the imams at Conflantinoplc. There are more or fewer of thefc to every mofque, according to its fize or revenues. One of thefe is head over the reft, and anfwers to a parifh priefl with us, and has under him, in large mofques, the readers, and people who cry. out to go to prayers ; but in final) mofques the Jheik is obliged to do all this himfelf. In fuch it is their bufinefs to open the mofque, to cry to pravers, and to begin their fhort devotions at the head of the congregation, who fraud rank and file in great order, and make all their motions together. Every Friday the jheik makes an harangue to his congregation. Pocock's Egypt. p. 171.

SnEiK-bellet, the name of an officer in the Oriental nations. In Egypt the Jheik-bellet is the head of a city, and is 'ap- pointed by the pallia. The bufinefs of this officer is to take care that no innovations be made, which may be prejudi- cial to the port, and that they fend no orders which may hurt the liberties of the people. But all his authority de- pends on his credit and interefl, not his office : for the go- vernment of Egypt is of fuch a kind, that often the people of the leaft power by their, pofls have the greateft influence ; and a caia of the janizaries, or Arabs, and fometimes one of their mcanefl officers, an oda-bafha, finds means, by his parts and abilities, to govern all things. Pocock's Egypt,

SHELF, (Cycl.) a term ufed by the miners, in many parts of England, to cxprefs a did i notion of the inner flructure of the earth, fo little known to philofophers, that they have no Word to exprcis it by. Thefe workmen fometimes alfo ex- prefs it by the term fajl ground, or faft country. What they mean by this, is, that part of the earth, which they find lying, even, and in an orderly manner, and evidently having retained its primitive form and ikuation, unmoved by the upper ftrata, have plainly been removed, and tolled about. It is evident to reafon, that there muff have been a very violent concuflion of the fuperficial .part of the earth, in the time of its being covered by the waters of the deluge; and experience as much evinces this as reafon. Before this con- cuflion it appears probable, that the uppermoft furface of mineral veins, or loads, did in moft places lie even with the then furface of the earth.. The 'remains of this furface, found at different depths in digging/ the miners exprefs by the word Jbelf.
 * waters of the general deluge, while the circumjacent, and

In this concuffion of the waters covering the whole earth, its natural furface, together with the uppermoft furface of thofe mineral veins, were then in many places "loofened, and torn off; and the earth, and with it the mineral no- dules, called jhoad-Jlones, were carried down with the de- fending waters from hills into the adjacent valleys, and fometimes into the flreams of rivers, by which they were warned to yet greater diftances from their original place. On this depends the methoa 1 of training mines. Philofoph. Tranf. N° 69. Seethe article Training.

SHELL (Cycl.) — Shell-^/j, conchylia. The world has for 2 long time wanted a regular method of claffing of jhell-jijl^ which a late author of the French nation has attempted, upon a new and very valuable plan. In this he throws afide the vulgar diilinction ojjhells, into the fea, frefh water, and land kinds, and very judicioufiy arranges all under the fame clafs, which have the fame general characters. The Jhclls are all naturally to be arranged under three prin- cipal claffes ; thefe will contain all the fpecies, and are af- terwards to be divided into a number of familiesj or genera, J Suppl, Vol. II.

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ana under thefe the feveral fpegics regularly recounted J arid at the end of each defcription, the varieties may be addecL The firfl general clafs of Jhelh contains thofe which are found all of one piece, or have only one jhell, not a pair. Thefe have been called by the Greeks monothp-^, and by the Latin authors itnivalvia, Univalves.

The fecond general clafs contains thofe Jhelh which are of two pieces, called bivalves, fuch as oiffers, cockles, and the like. Sec Tab. of Shells, paffim.

The third clafs contains thofe which are compofcd of more than two pieces. Thefe are called mtdtivalves ; and of this kind are the pholas and balanus.

This method rakes in the frefh-water-^//r, as well as thofe of the fea ; and as thofe hitherto known are all of one 'or other of the firfl claffes, their feveral fpecies will be comprifed among, or after the fea Jhtlls of each of thofe claffes. The hnd-Jhells are of two kinds, the recent and the fofflle ; the firfl: kind, as far as hitherto known, are all univalves, and the latter are of all the three claffes.

As each of thefe general clafles contains a very great num- ber of fpecies, it may feem difficult to enter on this ftudv, from the multiplicity 'of the bodies 5 but method renders all this eafy, and it is no way difficult, in the following man- ner, to find of what clals, what family, and what genus, any given Jhell is, from a bare infpecliom The jhell h firfl to be examined, to fee whether it is com- pofed of one, two, or more pieces. If it is found-to confift only of one piece, it is known thence to belong to the clafs of univalves; if of two, to the bivalves ; and if of more, to the mukivalves. When it is thus referred to its proper clafs, its family and genus will be found by farther examination of its general form, and the fhape of its mouth, or aperture* As foon as a given JbeU is found to be univalve, the five genera of that clafs are to be ufed in comparifon with it, in order to- fee to which of them it belongs. If it has no turn or twill, but forms one fimple figure, approaching to a cone, and pointed at the top in the manner of the common Km* pet, or patella, it is known to be .of the family of the pdieUee j the character of which is to have only one valve, and that fixed in its natural flate to a flone, or other hard body, and of a flatted fhape, though elevated into a fort of point' in the middle.

If the faell be not conic,:' But extremely flat, and fpmewKat of the fhape of a man's ear, it is of the fecond family of the aures marines, diilinguifhed by the epithet plana-, fiat. or plane. If it forms a tube or pipe, it is of the nature of the common tuhdi marhu, and is of that family. If, on the other hand, it refemble a fort of veffel or boat, it is of the nautilus clafs, and belongs to the naviculce. Thefe are the diilinctioris, if it be plain., and "without turn- ings ; but if it have feveral twills, or wreaths,, its aperture, commonly called the mouth, is to be examined, for this forms, in this cafe, the generical character. If the, mouth be exactly round, the' Jhell is cf that family of, the cochlea:, or fnails, called by the anticnts lunares. If it be of. a feini- circular figure, it is of that family of fnails called jhnh'n- nares:, under which family are comprised the mrita; as one genus.

If the Jhell approaches to a conic figure, and grows larger at the bale, and has a flatted. or oval mouth, it is of a fe- venth order of .cochlea, or fnails difiinguifhed by the title cochlea ore (kprejjb.

If the Jbellhave the exterior figure of a trumpet, and has a large tail, it belongs to the family of the buccina; of 'which, however, it is to be remarked, that there are fume fpecies which have not long tails': in this diflin.ction we alfo' have recourfe to the mouth, -which is larger, than that of the rau- rex, lefs long, and its lower part, is formed into a crooked beak. Thefe are the cfientjal characters which diftinguifh this family of fuelh ; a family, concerning which theie is great confufion among authors.

If the bafe, of the jhett be fmall, and the whole diminifh gradually in fize from this to the end, which. is pointed, then the jhell is of the family of the turbines. If a jhell, form a cone, or cornet, there is "no occafion to look at the mouth, tins figure alone determines it to be a valuta; and if one of its extremities is nearly as large as the other, it is then a rhombus. This genus of jhelh has been called cylin- dri by the Latins, and rouleaux by the French. When this rhombus, or cylinder, has a 'pointed bafe, frequently orna- mented alfo with feveral- fmu.ll eminences ; and \yhen its middle is large, and is in theTame manner furrpunded with tubercles, and its head is elongated by feveral turns, and its mouth of an oblong figure, and furnifhed with teeth ; and when, as is often the cafe, there is anexcrefcence of the plate that covers the mouth, called by authors an. ah, or wing, this jhell mull be placed among the family of the murcx, Or, as the French call, it, the rooher. The purpura is 'diftinctly not a fynunymous term with the precedent, but expreffes fuch a j bell, which, mftead of be- ing furnifhed with points, is cut and curled from top to bottom, in. the manner of theleavcs of our curled cabbages, or of the endive raifed for fallads. The body in this genua is alfo more compact, and more detached from the other "2 K k k ' parts,