Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/494

 S L O

and finally, after having parted through them all, and depo- sed fome fediments in each, it is let off into a very large pit, of almoft half an acre of ground ; in this it is fuffered to ftand fo long, as to depofit all its fediment, of whatever Icind, and after this it is let out. This work is carried on day and night, and the ore taken away, and replaced by more, as often as occafion requires. That ore which lies next the beams, where it was pounded, is always the clean- .eft,. or richeft.

When thcflicb is wafhed as much as they can, an hundred •weight of it ufually contains about an ounce, or perhaps but half an ounce of metal ; which is not all gold neither, for there is always a mixture of gold and filver, but the gold is in the largeft quantity, and ufually is two thirds of the mixture : they then put the flkh into a furnace with fome lime-ftone, and flaken, or the fcoris of former meltings, and

' run them together. The firft melting produces a fubftance, called lech; this lech they burn with charcoal, to make it lighter, to open its body, and render it porous, after which it is called rofi', to this roft they add fand in fuch quantity as they find neceffary, and then melt it over again. They have at Chremnitz many other ways of reducing gold out of its ore, but particularly one, in which they employ no lead during the whole operation ; whereas, in general, lead is always neceffary, after the beforementioned proceffes. See the article GoLD-ar*.

SLING [CycL)— Sling, at fea, a word ufed varioufly. There are flings to hoife up cafks, or any other heavy things ; which are made of ropes fpliced into themfelves at either end, with an eye big enough to hold the thing to be flung. There are other flings, which are made longer, and with a imall eye at each end ; one of which is put over the breech of a piece of ordnance, and the other eye comes over the - end of an iron crow, which is put into the mouth of the piece, to weigh and hoife the gun as they pleafe. There are alfo flings for the yards ; which is done by binding them faft to the crofs-tree aloft, and to the head of the maft,

. with a ftrong rope or chain, that if the tie ihould happen to break, or to be fhot to pieces in fight, the yard, never- thelefs, may not fall down upon the hatches.

SLINGING (CycL) — Slinging a man overboard, in order to

" flop a leak in a ihip, is done thus : the man is truffed up about the middle in a piece of canvafs, and a rope to keep

hand, and a plug, wrapped in oakum and well tarred in a tarpawling clout, in the other, which he is to beat with all difpatch into the hole, or leak.
 * him from finking, with his arms at liberty, a mallet in one

SLOANEA, in botany, the name of a genus of plants, de- fcribed by Linnaeus andPlumier, the characters of which are thefe. The perianthium confifts of one leaf, divided into feven fegments. There are no petals. The ftamina are a great number of flender filaments, broader at the end than in any other part, and of the length of the cup. The an- thers grow to the fides of thefe filaments. The germen of the piftil ftands in the bottom of the cup. The ftyle is fu- bulated, and longer than the ftamina. The ftigma is acute, The fruit is a large roundifh echinated capfule, compoled of four valves. The feeds are oval, obtufe, and flefhy, and have oblong nuclei. Linnai Gen. Plant, p. 242. Plu- mier, p. 15.

SLOATH, in natural hiftory, the name of an animal remark- able for its flow motion. This creature is fo very tedious in all its motions, that it will be three or four days in climb- ing up, and coming down a tree, and does not go the length of fifty paces upon even ground in a day. The found of its voice feems only to exprefs the word bait, for which reafon the Brafilians call him by that name; but he ufually repeats the found about fix times together, defcejid- ing, as if one ihould fing, la, fol, fa, mi, re, ut. What- ever he takes hold of, he does it fo ftrongly, or rather fo ftiffly, that he will fometimes fleep fecurely while he hangs at it. Barttzus, de Reb. Braf. p. 222. Clufius, Margrave, Pifo, and others, have given defcriptions of this animal, but they none of them mention the length of his fore feet j which, according to the animal preferved in the Mufcum of the Royal Society of London, is double that of the hinder pair. Grew's Muf. p. 11. From the (hag of his body, the fhape of his legs, and his having little or no tail, as alfo from the flownefs of his gate, and his climbing up trees, as little bears ufe to do, he feems to come near the bear-kind ; from which he differs chiefly, in having but three claws upon a foot. This crea- ture breeds principally in Florida and Brafil. Id. ibid.

SLOATS of a cart, the underpieces which keep the bottom of the cart together. See Cart.

SLOE, prunus fylveflris, the Englifh name for the wild plum. See the article Prunus.

Shou-ivorm, in natural hiftory, the name of an infect found on the leaves of floe, or black-thorn, and fometimes on thofe of the garden-plum.

This, and a like worm, found on the leaves of the oak, both remarkable for the hairs which cover them, each of which is forked or divided into two at the ends, are ufually ef- teemed caterpillars, but they are in reality animals of a very

SLO

different clafs ; the caterpillar has, at the utmoft, but fix- teen legSj thefe have each twenty two, and have all the other characters of that clafs of infects, called by the French na-> turaYifts faajfh-cbmilles, or baftard- caterpillars. All the animals of that clafs are very remarkable for the different figure they make after the laft change of their fkins but this is in none feen fo obvioufly, as in thefe two fpecies ■ that of the oak is of a greenifh colour, and its hairs, which are fo ftiff that they almoft defervc the name of fpines, are black : that of the floe is of a greyifh hue* and its fpines longer, and of a deep brown ; every one of thefe is, toward the extremity, divided into two, in the manner of the tines of a fork. Thefe give the animal a very remarkable figure, and are caft off with the feveral fkins, while the new fkins leave others in their place; but in the laft change, before that into the nymph flate* the change made into the creature is fuch, that it could never be fufpectcd to be the fame animal by any one, who was not an eye-witnefs of the change.

The creature in this, throwing off its fkin, becomes per- fectly finooth, and of a dirty yellowifh colour, with not the lighteft variegation on it, nor the leaft appearance even of the remains of the fpines. In this ftate it remains till it goes into the nymph ftate, and from that, after about fix- teen days, it comes out in the ihape of a four- winged-fly. The whole procefs of the change is the fame, in the two- fpecies of the oak and the JIoc, but the flies they produce are very different. Reaumur's Hift. Inf. Vol. 9. p. no. SLOT, {CycL) in the fportfman's language* a term ufed to ex- prefs the mark of the foot of a flag, or other creature pro- per for the chafe, in the clay or earth, by which they are able to guefs how long the creature has been gone by, and which way he went. The flat, or treading of the flag, is very nicely ftudied on this occafion : if the Jht be large, deep printed in the ground, and with an open cleft, and add- ed to thefe marks, there Is a large fpace between mark and mark, it is certain that the ftag is an old one. If there be obferved the flats, or treadings of two, the one long, and the other round, and both of one fize, the long flat is al- ways that of the larger beaft. There is alfo another way of knowing the old ones from the young ones by the tread- ing ; which is, that the, hinder feet of the old ones never reach to their fore feet, whereas thofe of the young ones do.

Old flags alfo are long jointed, and they never tread doubly, or falfely, as the young ones do, becaufe the tendons, that hold the joints of their feet, are ftronger; but the feet of the young ones are fometimes forced, for want of thefe ftrong finews, to turn away double. It is to be obferved alfo, that there is a great difference between the ftot of a ftag or hart, and that of a hind ; for there is no hart of the fecond head fo young, but that he leaves a larger and wider flat than the hind, excepting when the hinds are big with young, for on that occafion their claws will open as wide as thofe of the hart.

Another method of knowing the age of a ftag is by his fu- mets, though fome general rules are to be known, before any thing can be judged from this article. .Thefe are, that in April and May, they caft their fumets, as it were, in cakes, and in June and July they caft them in thin, long, and large crotels, and from thence to the end of Auguft they hold the fame form and fize ; but they are in this laft month always hard and knotty. In all thefe cafes, the largeft and longefr. fumets are efteemed to be the marks of the largeft and oldefr. flags. If they have been difturbed, or if they have received any hurt, they ufually caft them fliarp at one end, and dry. This alfo is conftantly the cafe, when their new horns are juft grown to their hardnefs, and they rub them againft the trees to get off the cracked membranes, which were the velvetings in their firft ftate. There is always alfo a dif- ference between the fumets of the morning and thofe of the evening : thofe made at night, when they go to relief, are better digefted, and confequently moifter than thofe made m the morning, becaufe having taken their reft all day, there is a more perfect digeftion made than can be in the night, as they are, during that time, feeking food. There are alfo feveral other ways of judging of the growth and fize of a ftag, as by his carriage, or bearings, according to the huntfman's phrafe ; that is, according to the break- ing of the tender branches of trees which he makes with his horns in pafhng through. When the boughs are found bruifed and broken very high, and to a good width, there is no doubt of his being an old one : but this judgment is not to be made in the mentis of March, April, May, and June, becaufe their boins are at that time either wholly wanting, or they are young and velvety. The heighth of the crea- ture's entries into the woods is alfo another mark of his fize, for the old ones are always proud and ftately, and go irt erect, but the young ones will creep. The older the ftag is the fooner he goes to fray, and the larger are the trees he choofes for this ufe ; the young ones go later to it, and always choofe the weaker and lower trees. Notwithftanding that, after the fixth year, the age is not certainly known by the horns, as there is, after this

time.