Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/578

Rh 542 W H I W H I known by the name of the Saltenstrom, and dreaded on account of its turbulence and its numerous vortices. Opposite Salten Fjord, on the western side of Vest Fjord, the wild jagged range of the Lofoten Islands runs like a row of shark s teeth from south to north. Between two of the southernmost of the group, Moskenres and Mosken, runs the Moskenstrb m, a tidal current which after low water commences to flow towards the north-east, then gradually changes its direction to east, to south, and at high water to south west ; after half an hour s cessation the ebb begins to flow towards the south-west, at half ebb due west, and then gradually turns through north to north-east at low water. The current thus rotates round Mosken once in 12 hours. It runs with a velocity of 7 miles an hour when a strong wind blows in the same direction, and, as the sea-bed is very irregular and rises abruptly from 200 fathoms seaward of Mosken to 20 fathoms in the channel and Vest Fjord, the flow is very turbulent, with occasional whirlpools and opposing currents set up along the shore, giving it a character very similar to that of the Strait of Messina. This is the place of the Malstrom. In the Faroe Islands several dangerous tide-races exist in which are dreaded whirlpools, the two worst being the Qurerne off Sand Island and one round the rock of Sumboe-musk off Siider Island. The Shetland and Orkney Islands are traversed by a system of formidable tideways called roosts, dangerous to fishing boats and very frequently forming whirlpools. It is sufficient to refer to the swiths or wells of Swona in Orkney, to the whirlpool of the Swelchie off Stroma, and the Merry Men of Mey, also in the Pent- land Firth. The channel of Jura Sound in the Hebrides, which contains Corrievreckan whirlpool, resembles that of Mosken and Messina in being narrow and of very irregular configuration. The sea to the west is about 70 fathoms deep ; a trough over 50 fathoms in depth and quarter of a mile wide runs through towards the east, deepening about the centre to 105 and 120 fathoms in consecutive holes. The channel is less than a mile in width, and the water is shallow (15 to 20 fathoms) from the shore out to the central trough, where the deepening is abrupt. To this fact, and not to the supposed existence of &quot; a submerged rock of pyramidal form shooting up from a depth of 100 fathoms,&quot; are due, in all probability, the tidal stream, running sometimes at 9 miles an hour, and the great vortices which are occasionally formed, as well as the danger ous counter-currents and overfalls. Folklore. Many marvellous stories are told of the dwellers in whirlpools. Fish are supposed to be more abundant there than anywhere else. Whales have from earliest times been associated, if not confounded, with these gulfs ; and all manner of sea-beings, krakens, trows (trolls), and mermaids, claim sanctuary beneath the turmoil. Ramus, two centuries ago, tried by dint of misapplied philological ingenuity to identify Charybdis with the Malstrom, alleging that the fact of Ulysses s voyage to northern seas was plainly recorded in the names of islands and headlands. For the myth of Charybdis, see SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS. Whirlpools have been brought forward to explain the origin of the tides ; but a well-known Norse folk-tale in one of its forms gives to a particular vortex the Swelchie an additional and more important office, that of maintaining the salinity of the ocean. &quot;Malstrom &quot; (mill- stream) probably refers to the rapid current resembling a mill-race. The Quserne in the Faroe Islands suggests the same idea from its name. A mist of poetical romance has always played over the roaring surges of Corrievreckan, and this finds expression in many poems and tales. Horrible sea-monsters made the gulf their home in the earliest times ; but they gave place to the seductive mer maid who captivated a Macphail of Colonsay, and entertained him in her coral caves and fairy palaces beneath the sea for many years. Scott in his Border Minstrelsy gives another version of this story, in which Macphail outwits the mermaid and remains faithful to the maid of Colonsay. The name of the whirlpool is sometimes derived from coire bhreacen, &quot;the speckled cauldron,&quot; referring to the foam that usually variegates its surface ; but the legend makes it the corry or gulf of Vrekan, a prince of Norway, who, having come there to woo a Hebridean chieftain s daughter, was swept into the whirlpool, and drawn down from sight for ever. George Mac- donald has embodied this legend in a highly dramatic poem. Literature. References to whirlpools occur incidentally in many places. See A. Kireher s Mundus Subterranens, vol. i., Amsterdam, 1064 ; Pontoppidan s Natural History of Norway, 1755 (this work cites the opinions of earlier writers, Ramus, Arraboe, &c.). For a good description of Charybdis, see Nicholson s Journal, vol. i. (1798) p. 12 ; of Corrievreckan, Atheneeum, 3d September 1864. Full and trustworthy details of the actual state and dangers of special whirl pools will be found in the Sailing Directions or Coast Pilots of the British Ad miralty for the various seas. (H. R. M.) WHIRLWIND. See METEOROLOGY, vol. xvi. p. 1 29 sq. WHISKY, or WHISKEY, a spirit distilled for drinking, which originated, at least so far as regards the name, 1 with the Celtic inhabitants of Ireland and Scotland ; and its manufacture and use still continue to be closely associated 1 Celtic uisge (water) ; the term in its present use is probably an abbreviation of &quot;usquebaugh&quot; (uisge-leatha, &quot;water of life&quot;). Cf. Skeat, Etym. Diet., s.v. with these two countries. Distilled spirit first became popularly known as aqua vitse, and it was originally used only as a powerful medicinal agent. It Avas not till about the middle of the 17th century that it came into use in Scotland as an intoxicating beverage. In August 1655 the town council of Glasgow issued regulations for persons who should &quot;brew, sell, and tap ail and acquavitae,&quot; and in 1656 the town treasurer was indemnified for &quot; aquavytie sent to ane friend.&quot; In 1660 an excise duty was first im posed on &quot;acquavitae&quot; consumed in England; but not till the year 1684 was any record kept of the quantities on which duty was charged. In that year duty was paid on the considerable quantity of 527,492 gallons. The con sumption thereafter rose with great rapidity, reaching one million gallons at the end of the century, and in 1743 the enormous quantity of 8,200,000 gallons was consumed. Meantime the evils of the traffic had induced the legislature to pass, in 1736, the Gin Act (see GIN) with the view of checking the demoralization attendant on the drinking habits of the people. It was principally in the form of gin that distilled spirits were consumed in England ; but gin is nothing else than a rectified and specially flavoured variety of whisky. In Scotland and Ireland the attempts of the excise authorities to control the distillation of whisky, and to derive revenue from it, led to unlimited smuggling and open evasion of the law, and it was not till well into the 19th century that efficient regulations and energetic supervision brought the traffic in these countries under public control. Indeed illicit distillation is still extensively practised in Ireland, where the detec tions average more than eight hundred yearly. It is not easy at the present day to define whisky. Originally it was made from malted barley, the fermented wort from which was distilled in the common pot-still (see DISTILLATION, vol. vii. p. 264) ; but with the introduction of the Coffey and other continuous stills, which yield a &quot; silent &quot; or flavourless spirit, it has become possible to prepare alcoholic liquor, which is sold as whisky, from any cereal grain, malted or unmalted, and from potato starch, grape sugar, and numerous other starch and sugar yielding substances. As a rule, however, whisky is made from grain, and by preference from barley, malted or raw. The bulk of the whisky made in the United Kingdom can be separated into three classes. (1) Malt whisky is the product of malted barley alone, distilled in the ordinary pot-still. Its flavour is partly due to the circumstance that the malt is dried over a peat fire ; and a spirit so prepared con stitutes the pure Highland malt whisky of Scotland. (2) Grain whisky, under which heading comes the bulk of the Irish whisky of commerce, is made in the pot-still, principally from raw barley, with only a small proportion of malted barley to favour the trans formation of starch into sugar in the preparation of the wort. (3) Plain spirit is produced from barley, rice, and other cereals dis tilled in the Coffey patent still. Plain spirit forms the basis from which gin, British brandy, and other rectifier s drinks are prepared ; and it is used for blending with other flavoured pot-still spirits, to produce a certain character of potable spirit sold by wholesale dealers and known by special blend names. It is only the finer qualities of matured malt and grain whisky that can be used as single or unblended spirit. In the United States whisky is distilled chiefly from corn and rye, wheat and barley malt being used, though only to a limited extent. When spirit is distilled as whisky, it retains the natural principles which impart an agreeable flavour to the beverage ; for the fusel oil, which is contained in alcohol, and is acrid to the taste and stupefying in its effects, is to a great extent extracted. Whisky is greatly improved by age ; it is not mellow, nor its flavour agreeable, until it is several years old. In its original state it is almost colourless, but it derives a reddish hue from the wood of the ban els into which it is drawn, the inner surfaces of which are usually charred to facilitate the colouring. In the financial year ending 31st March 1886 there were in England 10 distilleries, in Scotland 127, and in Ireland 27. The quantity of spirits distilled in that year in the United Kingdom was 38,961,842 gallons ; the number of gallons consumed as bever age was 26,342,851 (England 15,290,816, Scotland 6,297,365, Ire land 4,754,670) ; the quantity exported was 2,808,198 gallons ; and the stock held in bonded stores at the end of 1885 was 64,405,817 gallons. The total excise revenue from the manufacture, sale, and consumption of British spirits was 13,140,695, a considerable de crease on previous years ; and distilled spirits are now a steadily declining source of public income.