Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/542

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founder than the rays. It grows to a very large fize, fome- times to four, five, or fix feet long. It is covered all over with a mucous fubftance, but under it the ikin is barfli, and rough enough to ferve for the poliihing wood and ivory. It is of a brownifh grey on the back and fides, and white under the belly. The head is flatted and roundifh, and the mouth large, and opening at the extremity of the fnout, not, as in other of the fifties of this clafs, under the head. It has three rows of teeth, eighteen in a row. Its eyes are large, and placed near its mouth, and feem as if meant for looking fideway, rather than up or down. Its upper pair of fins very much referable wings, from whence it has its name of the angel-fijh, and at the extremities of thefe are a number of fharp hooked thorns. It has alfo a row of ihort prickles on its back. See Tab. of Fifties, N° 7. It is common in the Englifh feas, and is not unfrequcntly caught in Cornwall. John/on, de Pifc. p, 23.

SQUATT, in mineralogy, a term given by the Englifh miners to a peculiar fort of bed of ere, lefs valuable than a load or vein, becaufe of its reaching but a little way. Though the ore of the fquatts is generally very rich and good, not inferior in quality to the beft vein-ore, the miners are often terribly difappointed, on finding thefe fquatts in- stead of the right veins, after a long fearch. In the tin countries, the way of fearchtng for mines is by looking after the fhoad-ftones ; that is, certain metalline ftones which contain fome ore, and which have originally made the upper part of the vein of ore, reaching up to the day, or the fur- face of the earth. See Shoad.

In the time of the deluge thefe upper parts of the veins have been waihed oft, and carried down the fides of the hills, in which the mines ufually lie, into the flat country, but they always lie in a regular and continued train, from the orifice of the mine to the farther! part of the train ; fo that when but one ftone of this kind is found, the miners are certain of coming to the bed of metai, on tracing it up to its head by the train. This is a laborious and expenfive work, be- caufe the ftones never lie on the furface, but at the different depths of one to ten feet, or any depth between thefe, The fquatts have their trains of fhoad-ftones as well as the regular veins, and when thefe are traced to the orifice, there is the appearance of a rich load, which the proprietor is not thoroughly undeceived in, till the diggers come to the end of it.

The fquatt is a bed of ore from three to ten fathom long, and ufually is about half as broad as it is long; few are larger

.. than this ftandard, but many much lefs. This is always flat, and thence has its name ; the round collections of ore of the fame kind being called bournes. The fquatt communi- cates with no other load or vein, but is entire of itfelf, and its extremities terminate at once, without running, into fe- veral little firings, in the manner of thofe of the right veins. It does not lie within walls, as the loads or veins always do, though it is always depofited in the fhelf, or fail ground ; that is, in ftrata that have not been moved by the flood. Phil. Tranf. N° 69.

SQUATUS, in ichthyology, a name ufed by Pliny, and other of the old Roman authors, to exprefs the fifli called by the old Grecian writers rhine, and by the moderns fquatina. It is a fpecies of the fqualus, and is diftinguifhed by Artedt under the name of the fqualus with no pinna ani, and with the mouth in the top of the fnout. See Squatina.

SQUILL, Scilla, or fquilla. See Scilla, Cycl.

Wagner recommends the powder of J quills ', given with nitre, inhydropical fwellings, and in a nephritis, and mentions fe- veral examples of cures which he performed, by giving pa- tients from four to ten grains with a double quantity of nitre. He fays it aJmoft always operates as a diuretic, fume- times vomits or purges. Medic. Eft". Edinb. Dr. Hefs fays, he has made cures of the afthma with the powder of [quills. The efficacy of this powder of fquills, from four to twelve grains, in curing the afthma, is attefted by feveral. Med. EiT. ibid, from Commerc. Norimb. 1737, &1739.

SQUILACHI, in zoology, the name by which the modern Greeks call the jackall, or lupus aureus of authors. Bellon. lib. 2. cap. 107. See Jackall,

SQUILL A aqua dulcis, the frejh-water fin-imp. Few people are aware of the vaft deftrudtion made by this little infect among the finall fry of fiih. This infect is commonly very plentiful in Handing waters, and particularly in breeding- ponds, where they always have their prey in plenty before them ; and often fuffer none, or fcarce any of the numerous young fry, hatched from the fpawn of carp and tench, to live to grow up. They may be obferved following the fhoals of the young fry, and feizing multitudes one after another ; and at other times lurking among the weeds, to feize fuch as ftraggle by themfelves. If one of thefe infects be put into a baton of water with a dozen or two of thefe young fiih, though as big as himfelf, he will very foon de- ilroy them all. They kill numbers that they cannot eat, but leave them to rot.

SQUIRREL, fciurus, in zoology. See the article Sciurus. There is great diverfion in the hunting this little creature,

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and its flefh is. very delicate and well ta'fted. The only fei- fon for hunting it is in autumn, and the beginning of winter, at which time the creature is fat; and the leaves being off the trees, it may be feen as it leaps from bough to bough, which when purfued it does with a furprifing agility. In the fummer they build their nefts, which the fportfmen call dray's* very artificially in the tops of trees, with flicks, mofs, and fuch other things as the woods afford ; they fill this lodging, during the feafon, with nuts and other fruits, which are to ferve them in the fevere weather, when the trees afford nothing. They fleep in the midft of this pro- vifion a great part of the winter, and that fo found, that they will not be waked by ever fo loud a nolle made juft under their drays ; though at other times they fly out imme- diately on hearing any noife, even at a confiderable di- stance.

The tail of the fquirrel, which is as large as the body, though compofed almoft entirely of hair, ferves the crea- ture, in fome fort, inftead of wings ; for by means of it the body is kept fufpended in the air, without any vifible fink- ing, while the creature throws itfelf from the boughs of one tree to thofe of another of equal height. But the more general leaps the fquirrel takes, are from the outermoi! branches of a high tree to another fomewhat lower at a diftance ; it is wonderful to fee how far it will be carried in thefe leaps ; and if it mines the tree it aims at, and by that means falls from the top of ever fo high a tree to the ground, the tail fupports it fo well, that it comes foftly down, and receives no harm. The hunting of the fquirrel is mofl agreeably performed in woods of a young growth, the trees of which may be fhaken by the hand ; and it is neceffary to take out fome means of diflodgmg them from the clefts of trees, in which they will take refuge, and from which they will never be removed by mere noife.

Many people ufually go together on this expedition, and fometimes they carry bows and arrows for the diflodgmg the prey from thefe places ; fometimes bludgeons, or ihort and thick ftaves, loaded at one end with lead, to prevent their lodging in the trees, when they are thrown up. The fquir- rel which in her fright has taken refuge in any part of a tree, and is not to be diflodged either by hollooing or mak- ing the tree, will always quit the place as foon as an ar- row, or bludgeon, has been well aimed at her, and will give a farther chafe.

The fquirr el is always fond of a large oak in time of danger, and runs to the neareft fhe can find as foon as ihe fees her- felf purfued : in fome part of the : upper boughs of this tree ihe fits fecure from the men and dogs, and as it is too troublefome to the fportfmen to climb every tree, the only method is to fhoot arrows, and throw bludgeons at her ; fhe is very feldom hurt by thefe, un lefs hit juft upon the head, for her .backbone is fo ftrong, that fhe will bear very nearly as hard a blow as a dog without danger of hurt. So long as the ftrength and fpirits of the creature laft, ihe always -keeps in the tops of the higher! trees, but when fhe grows weary fhe comes down, and takes fhelter in the hedges; ihe then foon becomes a prey to the dogs, or is very often killed upon the ground, in attempting to gain the hedge in places where there is no continued chain of trees by which ihe can come at it.

The common fquirrel, when it would crofs a water, is often feen to get upon fome light piece of wood, and fail over by means of her tail. '

^/y/j/jr-ScnjiRREi.. The flying- fquirr el is a creature famous in hiftory for being one of thofe few animals which fliew, that nature has given to fome quadrupeds a power of fly- ing.

This however is an obfervation not fo well verified in this creature as in the bat, which is truly a quadruped, its fore feet being only expanded into wings, and webbed, and which truly flies; whereas all that is called flying in this fquirrel,. is only its fufpending itfelf in the long leaps it makes by means of a membrane on each fide of the bodv, attached to the fore legs, and reaching to the hinder ones, only grow- ing narrower all the way.

This creature is found in feveral parts of America, and in many places on the confines of Ruffia toward Tartary." It lives in hollow trees, and covers itfelf carefully up with mofs. It feldom ilirs abroad in the day-time, but toward evening goes out in fearch of food. When kept within doors it fleeps the whole winter, but revives in fpring. The manner in which they catch them in Ruflia is this : they tie a net over the hole in a tree where they fufpect any of thefe creatures to lie hid, then they kindle a fire of ftraw, or light bufb.es about the foot of the tree, and as foon as this begins to fmoak pretty much, the creatures come out of the holes, and are taken in the net. Their fkin is ex- tremely foft, and the hair is ihort, and of a blackifh grey. Philof. Tranf. ^4.27, p. 37.

STABILES, in the antient mufic, was a name given to the extreme chords of a tetrachord.

They were fo called, becaufe they remained the fame through- out all the genera and fpecies of mufic e. One of thefe chords was the hypate, and the other the nete. They- are 1 fometimes