Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 05.djvu/917

* DARTER. 795 DART-MOTH. gently beneath the surface and disappear; or the.y may fly upward and circle ahout like a hawk. They make rude nests upon trees and lay chalky blue eggs. They cat great quantities of fish, which they kill by a quick, snake-like dart- ing forward of the closed beak, impaling the prey, vhich is then Hung into the air, caught in the BEAK OP TDE DAnTER. mouth and swallowed entire. Four sjjeeies are known, constituting the family Anhingida^. One species occurs in Africa, one in southern Asia, one in Australia, and one in tropical and sub- tropical America. The last (Anhinga anhinga) is sometimes called the water-turkey, and wan- ders in summer as far north as southern Illinois. It is a handsome bird, about three feet long, glossy black, the back marked with numerous silvery white spots or streaks. See Plate of Fishing Bikds; and Colored Plate of Egcs op Water a>'d Game Birds. DARTTORD (AS. Darentford). A town in Kent. England, 14 miles east-southeast of Lon- don Bridge, on the Darent, about three miles from its junction with the Thames (ilap: Eng- land, G 5). It lies in a narrow valley between two steep hills. It has large corn-mills, cotton and silk printing-works, large powder and paper mills; also manufactures of oil, iron, machinery, and chemicals. The first paper-mill in England as built here by Spielman, jeweler to Queen Elizabeth in 1590. The City of London Lunatic Asylum is situated here, and there are interest- ing ruins of a nimnery. founded 13.5.5 by Edward ITT. ^Yat Tyler's insurrection, in the reign of Richard II., broke out at Dartford in 1.381. Popu- lation, in 1.S91, 12,000; in 1901, 18,000. DAR'TLE, PvOSA. The companion of Mrs. Steerforth, in Dickens's David Copperfield. She is wildly jealous of Steerforth himself, although he was the cause of the disfiguring scar upon her face. DART'MOOR (named from the river Dart, vhich rises in the region). A granitic tableland in the southwest of Devonshire, England, remark- able for its wild, rugged scenery and cyclopean relics of aboriginal inhabitants (Map: England, C 6). Dartmoor proper (or the ancient forest of th.at name) and the outlying common lands are about 20 miles square. Tliis moorland region, encircled by a natural rampart, and moated by deep valleys, has a considerable elevation above the surrounding country, and culminates in Yes Tor, 2040 feet above the sea-level. Copper is found, and at Wieal, Duchy, and Birch Tor are productive tin-mines. The largest kaolin-works in England are at Lee Moor, which is also the seat of a meteorological observatory. The soil is composed chiefly of peat, which in the bottoms has accumulated in some places to the depth of 25 feet, and it rests on a subsoil of fine sand. Iilany of the well-watered dells and ravines are fertile, while the whole moor affords pasturage for cattle, sheep, and horses. The antiquities in- clude the Gray Wethers, a fine specimen below Vol. v.— 51. Sittaford Tor, of what is now styled a Druidical tcni|)le, the vestiges of a large aboriginal village at Griinspound, the cromlech at Drewsteignton, logans, stone avenues, dolmens, barrows, cairns, roek-pillars, and ancient trackways. During the long war with Napoleon, a prison, now used for convicts, was erected in western Dartmoor for French captives. Prince Town sprang up close by, and soon l)ecame a thriving place. During the war with tlic Ignited States (1812-15), many captured .mcricans were con- fined at Dartmoor. See Daktmook JIassacbe. The castle, ma'nor, and finest of Dartmoor were granted by Henry HI. to his brotlwr Rich- ard, Karl of Cornwall, and since 1337 Dart- moor has iieen, in part, permanently annexed to the Duchy of Cornwall. Dartmoor figures con- spicuously in |)oetry and ronuince. Consult Rowe, .1 Pcraniliiiliition of llic Aiicicnl and Hoyal Forcfst of Dartmoor, etc. (Plvmouth and' London, 3d ed., lS9tj). DARTMOOR MASSACRE, The. The killing (April 6, 1815) by a conijiany of English .sol- diers of some American prisoners, who, together with (WOO others, had been conlined in the Dart- moor (England) prison for several months after the close of the War of 1812 between England and the L'nited States. To quell what they re- garded as a mutiny and to thwart an apparent eft'ort at escape, the jirison guard, probably under orders from Capt. T. (J. Shortland. their crisoners, killing seven and wounding about sixty — thirty of them dangerously. The Americans at the time re- garded this as an act of wanton murder, but it was pronounced justifiable by a joint commission, which, however, acquitted the jirisoners of the charge of organizing a nmtiny or of planning an escape. The British (Jovernment soon afterwards promoted Shortland, but made liberal jirovision for the families of those who had been killed or permanently disabled. Consult: Andrews, The Prisoners' Memoirs: or, Dartmoor Prison (New- York, 1852) ; and Cobb, .1 Green Hand's First Cruise, Together with Fire Months in Dartmoor (Boston. 1841). DARTMOOR PRISON. See Dartmoor, and Dartmoor ilAssACUK. DART-MOTH. A noctuid moth of the genus Agrotis, whose caterpillars are cutworms, sonie- A nAitT-sioTH (Agrotis s/iticia). li. Adult motli; It, flcjioslt of ejrKs; c, caterpillar (a cut- worm); (1, head of catf'rpillar. times called 'climbing cutworms.' A species very widespread in both Enro])e and America is Agrotis saucia, whose wings expand an inch and