Page:Cyclopaedia, Chambers - Supplement, Volume 2.djvu/760

 WAT

WAV

diftances, he will be taught to go back ever To far in fearch of any thing; and if he fails in the leflbns, he is to be chid, beaten, or kept falling, for it, according to the offence. When he has been perfected in all thefe leflbns, he muff be taught his bufincfs of hunting; he is to be firft taught with tame fowl, which his mafter is to aflift him in taking, and reward and encourage him when he has done. After this, he is to be fent in without afliftance to take the fowl alone, and ifhefucceeds, he is to be encouraged and rewarded, and cor- rected if he fails. By this practice he will foon become mailer of his game ; but great care is to be taken m the' teaching him, when he has caught it, to bring it back to the fliore, without biting or hurting it.

The next thing to this, is the training him to the gun ; to this purpofe he mull be taught to follow ftep by ftep behind his mafter, and under covert of his fhadow, till he has mot, or, when there is occafion, to couch and lie clofe, never daring to ftir till the gun has gone off; and then, upon the leaft no- tice or beckoning, to come and do what he is commanded. Many of thefe dogs are fo expert, that they will have their eye upon the game as foon as their mafter, and the moment the gun is gone off, they will, without bidding, go and fetch it ; but this is being too forward, and if he is ufed afterwards with nets or lime-twigs, he will do great mifchief, by ruining on the birds as foon as they are taken, and tearing the nets, or fpoiling the twigs. Obedience is the beft quality in this fort of dog, and it is better he fhould wait for command, than know his bufincfs without it.

The fportfmen, who know the time of birds moulting, make a very great ufe of this fort of dog, taking him with them without gun, net, or any other affiftance. The common moulting- time of PFater-fcml is from June to Auguft ; in this time they are not able to fly well, and in fome part of it, when their old wing-feathers are off, and the new ones are grown fcarce at all, the dog is then to be taken to the fides of rivers, and other waters, and fet to hunt about the clofe

■ places, among which they hide themfelves at this time ; the dog, being fet to hunt, will eafily find them in thefe retreats, and will take them either by leaping fuddenly upon them, or fairly purfuing fuch of them as have not the ufe of their wings.

There is alfo another great ufe of the dog in driving them without catching them. This is practifed only in moorifh and fenny countries, where they are very numerous. In thefe countries a proper place is to be fought for, where the birds retire to, and thefe are planted with nets ; then the dog is fent into the Waters and places of covert, where they are fuppofed to be, and this at the moulting-time, when they cannot fly away from him. The alarm he puts them into which he firft attacks, foon calls many others together, and there is a large body of them formed, which the dog drives before him like a flock of fheep, and being directed by the fportfmen, frightens directly into the places of their retreat, where the nets arc placed before-hand to receive them.

VVater-W. We are apt to fuppofe that thefe birds have fomcthing more peculiar in their ftructure than they really

1 have, to enable them to live without the benefit of refpiration a considerable time. It was fuppofed that they could fubfift without air a long time, till Mr. Boyle found by his experi- ments with the air pump, that they could not bear the ex- hausted receiver any longer than other birds, a full grown duck being killed in two minutes in it. But what is more obfervable is, that their power of remaining under Water is for a much more limited time than is imagined. On tying a weight to the legs of a duck, and finking her in a tub of wa- ter, it was found that two minutes immerfion proved very troublefome to her, and occafioned great efforts for riling ; that after this the air-bubbles were difcharged in plenty from the mouth and noftiils, and finally the beak was wide opened, tia&Water admitted, and the creature abfolutcly drowned, fo as to be irrecoverably dead in fix minutes. A young duckling put into the Water in the fame manner, died at the end of the fourth minute, after difcharging many air-bubbles both from the nofirils and mouth, and yet more from the upper part of the head, a little behind the eyes. Phil.Tranf. N°. 62.

. Water-fowl may be taken in great abundance by nets properly managed. The net for this purpofe fhould be always made of the fmalleft and ftrongeft packthread that can be got. The melhes may be large, but the nets Ihould be lined on both fides with other fmaller nets, every mefh of which is to be about an inch and half fquare each way, that as the fowl ftrike either through them or againft them, the fmaller may pafs through the great melhes, and fo ftreighten and entangle the fowl.

Thefe nets are to be pitched for every evening flight of fowl, about an hour before fun-fet, flaking them on each fide of the river, about half a foot within the water, the lower fide of the net being fo plummed, that it may fink fo far and no farther ; place the upper fide of the net flantwife, fhoaling againft the Water* but not touching it by near two foot; and let the firings which fupport this upper fide of the net be faftened to firiall yielding fticks let in the bank ; thefe, as the fowl ftrikes, will give the net liberty to play, and to entangle them. Se- veral of thefe nets fhould be placed at once over different parts 7

of the river, at about twelve-fcore fathom diftance one from another; and if any fowl come that way, the fportfman will have a lhare of them. It is a good method, when the nets are fet to go to places fufficiently diftant from them with a ^un to fright them toward the places where the nets are ; and wherever any of the fowl are ftarted from, it may not be amffs to plant fome nets alfo there to take them as they return. The nets are to be left thue placed all night, and in the morn- ing the fportfman is to go and fee what is caught ; he fhould vilit the river firft, and take up what are caught there, and, frightening the reft away to the other places where Ins nets arc, he is next to vilit them, and take what are there fecured.

WateR-Caw/, in our old writers, a rent paid for filhing in, or other benefits received from, fome river. Blount.

W at ER-Horebound. See the article Lycopus.

W at er- Salamander. See the article Salamandra.

fiigb Water is when the tide is at the higheft. See the ar- ticle Tide, Cycl.

Low Water is when the tide is at theloweft.

WATERING 4 (C;W.)— Watering ofHorJh. All the while that a perfon is on a journey, the horfe fhould always be fuf- fered to drink of the firft good water he comes to after {even o' clock in the morning in fummer, and after nine or ten in the winter. Moderately pure water is to be preferred, that being beft of all which is neither too clear and penetrating, nor muddy and (linking.

Though it is the cuftom in England to run and gallop horfes after drinking, which we call fflatsrtng-couxfes, and which we fuppofe brings them into wind, yet Sollyfel, and many other of the beft judges of horfes, tell us, that it is one of the worft and moit pernicious practices that we can be guilty of; there can no good accrue from it, and many horfes are ren- dered purfy by it.

While a horle is drinking, the rider fhould draw up his head five or fix times, making him move a little between every draught. The rider need not be afraid of giving him water, with proper moderation, even in aim oft any circumftanccs. If he be warm and fweat very much, yet if he is not quite out of breath, and there are four or five miles to ride, he will be better after drinking a little, than if he had drank none at all ; only obferving, that if the horfe were very warm at his going into the water, his pace muft not be lefs than a moderate trot when he comes out, that he may not be chilled. In the time of a journey the horfe ought to be fuffered to drink in this manner, of the waters that come in the wav, as often as may be ; for if the rider happens to bait when he is hot and fweaty, he muft not be fuffered to drink of a long time, as it would endanger his life ; and if he has not been watered in this manner on the road, his exceffive thirft will often prevent his eating, and he will not be able to touch any fort of food of an hour or two, which is ufually more time than the rider can ftay, and yet without eating at baiting-times he will not have ftrength to go on. The giving him water on the road will, on the contrary, keep him ready for food whenever it is offered him, and the rider need ftay no longer than his own refrefiimcnt requires, the horfe eating imme- diately, and being readily qualified to go on again. If there be any ihallow water in the way, a little before the coming to the inn where the horfe is to reft all night, it is ah- ways proper to ride him in, and not onty give him a little drink, but ride him about feveral times, not quite up to the belly ; this will clean his legs, and prevent humours from falling down into them. If the horfe be very warm, and there has been no convenience of Watering him upon the road, the oats that arc given him fhould be firft fteeped a while in ale ; this will in- duce him to eat, though he could not have touched any that were wholly dry.

Many are of opinion, that horfes are fometimes fpoiled by giving them oats before their water ; but Mr. Sollyfel affirms, that though it be not the cuftom to give oats till afterwards, yet it never does any harm to feed the horfe with them both before and after drinking; and that it is often proper and ne- ceffary, efpccially when the horfe has been hard rid, and is warm.

WATRY Sores, in the manege, called in French mduvaifes eaux+ are a luppuration of ftinking and malignant humours, which iflue from the pattern and fetlock joints of a horfe, and that from the hinder rather than the fore-legs.

WAVE (Cycl,) — This motion of the fea-water depends greatly on the winds, and on the fituation of mountains, in regard to the fea ; for the winds are driven back from thefe with great impetuofity ; and in fome places this occafions a great and very irregular undulation, befide that which is produced by the immediate action of the winds on the furface of the water, in their own direct courfe.

Waves are to be confidered as of two kinds, and thefe may be diftinguifhed from one another by the names of natural and accidental Waves.

The natural Waves are thofe which are regularly proportioned in fize to the ftrength of the wind, whole blowing gives ori- gin to them. The accidental Waves are thofe occafioned by the wind's reacting upon itfelf by repercuffion from hills and mountains, or high mores, ajid by the wafting of the Waves themfelves, otherwife of the natural kind, againft recks and

ihoals ;.