Page:EB1911 - Volume 28.djvu/385

Rh Bridgeport and New Haven), with a factory product valued at $32,367,359 (6.7% more than in 1900). The most important manufactures are rolled brass and copper (value in 1905, $12,599,736, or 24.3% of the total for the United States), brass-ware (value in 1905, $7,387,228, or 42.2% of the total for the United States), clocks and watches—over a million watches are made here each year—and stamped ware (value in 1905, $1,037,666) The manufacture of brass-ware originated here in 1802 with the making of brass buttons; iron buttons covered with silver were first made here about 1760, block tin and pewter buttons about 1800, bone and ivory buttons about 1812, sheet brass in 1830, and pins and plated metals for daguerreotypes in 1842. Old-fashioned tall wooden clocks were made in Waterbury in the latter part of the 18th century, and cheap watches were first made here in 1879, these were long distmctive of Waterbury, and were often called “Waterbury watches.” The manufacture of cloth dates from 1814, and broadcloth was first made here in 1833. The city has a large wholesale trade and is a shipping point for dairy products. The municipality owns and operates the waterworks.

The township of Waterbury was incorporated in 1686, having been since its settlement in 1677 a part of Farmington township known as Mattatuck. The city of Waterbury was first chartered in 1853. The city and the township were consolidated in 1901. City elections are held biennially and the mayor, city clerk, treasurer, comptroller, city sheriff and aldermen hold office for two years. With the consent of the Board of Aldermen the mayor appoints five electors who with the mayor constitute a department of public works; appoints, three electors who with the mayor, comptroller, and president of the Board of Aldermen constitute a department of finance; appoints live electors who with the mayor constitute a department of public safety; and appoints five electors who constitute a department of public health. In 1902 there was a destructive fire in the business district of the city, and during a strike of street railway employees in 1903 state troops were called out to maintain order.  WATER-DEER, a small member of the deer-tribe from northern China differing from all other Cervidae except the musk-deer (with which it has no affinity) by the absence of antlers in both sexes. To compensate for this deficiency, the bucks are armed with long sabre-like upper tusks (see ). The species typifies a genus, and is known as Hydrelaphus (or Hydropotes) inermis; but a second form has been described from Hankow under the name of H. kreyenbergi, although further evidence as to its claim to distinction is required. Water-deer frequent the neighbourhood of the large Chinese rivers where they crouch amid the reeds and grass in such a manner as to be invisible, even when not completely concealed by the covert. When running, they arch their backs and scurry away in a series of short leaps. In captivity as many as three have been produced at a birth.

This is one of the few deer in which there are glands neither on the hock nor on the skin covering the cannon-bone. These glands probably enable deer to ascertain the whereabouts of their feUows by the scent they leave on the ground and herbage. The sub-aquatic habits of the present species probably render such a function impossible, hence the absence of the glands. The tail is represented by a mere stump.

 WATERFALL, a point in the course of a stream or river where the water descends perpendicularly or nearly so. Even a very small stream of water falling from any considerable height is a striking object in scenery. Such falls, of small volume though often of immense depth, are common, for a small stream has not the power to erode a steady slope, and thus at any considerable irregularity of level in its course it forms a fall. In many mountainous districts a stream may descend into the valley of the larger river to which it is tributary by way of a fall, its own valley having been eroded more slowly and less deeply than the main valley. Mechanical considerations apart, the usual cause of the occurrence of a waterfall is a sudden change in geological structure. For example, if there be three horizontal strata, so laid down that a hard stratum occurs between two

soft ones, a river will be able to grade its course through the upper or lower soft strata, but not at the same rate through the intermediate hard stratum, over a ledge of which it will consequently fall. The same will occur if the course of the river has been interrupted by a hard barrier, such as an intrusive dyke of basalt, or by glacial or other deposits. Where a river falls over an escarpment of hard rock overlying softer strata, it powerfully erodes the soft rock at the base of the fall and may undermine the hard rock above so that this is broken away. In this way the river gradually cuts back the point of fall, and a gorge is left below the fall. The classic example of this process is provided by the most famous falls in the world—Niagara.   WATER-FLEA, a name given by the earlier microscopists (Swammerdam, 1669) to certain minute aquatic Crustacea of the order Cladocera, but often applied also to other members of the division (q.v.). The Cladocera are abundant everywhere in fresh water. One of the commonest species, Daphnia pulex, found in ponds and ditches, is less than one-tenth of an inch in length and has the body enclosed in a transparent bivalved shell. The head, projecting in front of the shell, bears a pair of branched feathery antennae which are the chief swimming organs and propel the animal, in a succession of rapid bounds, through the water. There is a single large black eye. In the living animal five pairs of leaf-like limbs acting as gills can be observed in constant motion between the valves of the shell, and the pulsating heart may be seen near the dorsal surface, a little way behind head. The body ends behind in a kind of tail with a double curved claw which can be protruded from the shell. The female carries the eggs in a brood-chamber between the back of the body and the shell until hatching takes place. Throughout the greater part of the year only females occur and the eggs develop “parthenogenetically,” without fertilization. When the small males appear, generally in the autumn, fertilized “winter” or “resting eggs” are produced which are cast adrift in a case of “ephippium” formed by a specially modified part of the shell. These resting eggs enable the race to survive the cold of winter or the drying up of the water.

For a fuller account of the Cladocera and of other organisms which sometimes share with them the name of “water-fleas,” see the article.

 WATERFORD, a county of Ireland in the province of Munster, bounded E. by Waterford Harbour, separating it from Wexford, N. by Kilkenny and by Tipperary, W. by Cork, and S. by the Atlantic. The area is 458,108 acres, or about 716 sq. m. The coast line is in some parts bold and rocky, and is indented by numerous bays and inlets, the principal being Waterford Harbour; Tramore Bay, with picturesque cliffs and some extensive caves, and noted for its shipwrecks, on account of the rocky character of its bed; Dungarvan Harbour, much frequented for refuge in stormy weather; and Youghal Harbour, partly separating county Waterford from county Cork. The surface of the county is to a large extent mountainous, providing beautiful inland scenery, especially towards the west and northwest. The Knockmealdown Mountains, which attain a height of 2609 ft., form the northern boundary with Tipperary. A wide extent of country between Clonmel and Dungarvan is occupied by the two ranges of the Comeragh and Monavallagh