BLUMENBACH-BO TREE. the consequences likely to flow from unbridled popular licence. The news of his execution caused an indignant outcry among the democrats in Germany, who, besides instituting commemorations for the dead, made an ample subscription for his widow and children. very understood: it is simply like the case of distending the hose of the fire-engine by working the pump, and driving the water along. The counteracting force of the nerve-centres is proved by the following experiments: When the sympathetic nerve proceeding to the vessels of the head and face of an animal is cut, there follows congestion of the blood BLUMENBACH, JOHANN FRIEDRICH, & eminent naturalist, was born at Gotha, 11th May Vessels with augmented heat over the whole surface 1752. He studied at Jena and Göttingen, in supplied by the nerve. The ear is seen to become the latter of which universities he became extra-redder; a thermometer inserted in the nostril shews ordinary professor in 1776, and ordinary professor quantity of blood flowing into the capillaries. The an increase of temperature, the sign of a greater in 1778. Here he lectured for fifty years on inference from the experiment is, that, from the withnatural history, comparative anatomy, physiology, drawal of a counterpoise, the force that distends the and the history of medicine. In 1785, consequently before Cuvier, he made natural history has an unusual predominance. It is further proved small blood-vessels-that is to say, the heart's action dependent on comparative anatomy. His Manual translated into almost all the principal languages the nerve-centres lodged in the head, for, by cutting of Comparative Anatomy and Physiology has been that this nervous influence, acting upon the minute muscular fibres of the small vessels, proceeds from of Europe. The natural history of man was always the connection between the brain and the ganglion his favourite study; and his Collectio Craniorum in the neck, from which the above-mentioned nerve Diversarum Gentium, commenced in 1791, and completed in 1808, gave to the learned world the result of his observations on the skulls of different races, of which he had an extensive collection (see ETHNOLOGY). He published many other works on natural history, all of which were favourably received; for, both as a writer and a lecturer, he was eminently successful. His Manual of Natural History, indeed, has gone through 12 editions. Towards the end of the 18th c., he visited England, where he met with a distinguished reception from the most famous naturalists. On the 19th September 1825, his friends celebrated the jubilee of his doctorate, presented him on the occasion with a medal struck on purpose, and founded an exhi bition in his name, the proceeds of which were to assist young physicians and naturalists in the prosecution of their researches by travel. In 1835, the increasing infirmities of age compelled him to resign his academical functions. He died on the 22d Janu ary 1840. BLUNDERBUSS is a kind of short musket with a very wide bore, sufficient to take in several shot or bullets at once. It has a limited range, but is very destructive at close quarters. As a military weapon, it is chiefly of service in defending passages, door-ways, staircases, &c. Some of the English and German troopers in the 17th c. were armed with the B.; but the carbine has since nearly superseded this weapon. BLUSHING, a sudden reddening of the face, neck, and breast, owing to some mental shock, most commonly of the character of humiliation or shame. The nature and cause of this effect have been recently elucidated by physiological researches. It is produced by an increased flow of blood into the capillary vessels over the parts where the blush extends. Besides reddening the complexion, it creates a sensible augmentation of heat in those parts. The feeling that accompanies the state is of a distressing kind. The phenomenon of B. is part of a general influence exerted on the capillary circulation by mental causes operating through the brain. The experiments whereby the existence of this influence has been established, may be described as follows: The small blood-vessels, by which the blood is brought into proximity with the various tissues of the body, are kept in a state of balanced distension between two forces: the one the propulsive power of the heart's action, which fills and distends them; the other, an influence derived from the nervous centres, and acting upon the muscular fibres so as to contract the vessels. The first of the two farces the agency of the heart-is quite well is derived, the same restraining influence is arrested, and the congestion takes place. By stimulating the the vessels shrinking by the galvanic contraction of divided nerve galvanically, the suffusion disappears, their muscular coats. action of the brain upon involuntary muscles geneThe agency now described is of a piece with the rally, as the heart and the intestinal canal, and absorption, &c.—are affected by those changes in by it many organic functions-digestion, nutrition, the cerebral substance that accompany mental states. It is known that mental excitement has an immediate influence in all those functions; one while joy and exhilaration operate favourably upon set of passions, such as fear, tend to derange them, them. To apply these operations to the case in hand. and something to arise which gives a painful shock Supposing a person in the average mental condition, to the feelings-a piece of ill news, a reproach from some one whose good opinion is much valued, an open shame, or the fear of it, a fit of remorse, an occasion of grief-the pain is accompanied with a sudden loss, or waste, or decrease of cerebral power; none of the functions that the brain aids in maintaining is so strongly stimulated as before; and in particular, that stream of nervous energy which balances the heart's action in regulating the distension of the small blood-vessels, is abated, the abatement being made apparent in the redness and heat over the face and neck. In a great stroke of mental depression, the influence is of a much more extensive kind, though still of the same nature essentially as regards the enfeeblement of the nervous energy, and may lower the action of the heart itself: in which case there will be a widespread pallor, perhaps without a blush. In all probability, it is when the loss of cerebral influence extends only to the relaxation of the muscular fibres of the small vessels, leaving the heart in its usual vigour, that the state of B. is most fully manifested. Hence it is more apt to arise out of the smaller modes of painful apprehension, than from the more serious calamities that prostrate the system throughout. It is said that, in the Circassian slave-market, a young woman that blushes fetches a higher price. Some complexions do not shew the increased flow of blood in this way, and all persons are not equally sensitive to the cerebral shock that causes it. BO TREE, the name given in Ceylon to the PEEPUL (q. v.) of India (Ficus religiosa). It is held sacred by the Buddhists, and planted close by every temple, attracting almost as much veneration as the statue of Buddha itself.-The B. T. of the BO TREE-BOA. sacred city Anarajapoora, is in all probability the oldest tree in the world, of which the age can Bo Tree. From a Drawing in Tennent's work on Ceylon. be ascertained by historical evidence. It was planted in 288 B. C., and is therefore now (in 1860) 2148 years old. Sir James Emerson Tennent, in his work on Ceylon, gives reasons for believing that the tree is really of this wonderful age, and refers to historic documents in which it is mentioned at different dates, as 182 A. D., 223 A. D., and so on to the present day. This tree is invested, in the estimation of the Buddhists, with wonderful sanctity. To it,' says Sir James, kings have even dedicated their dominions in testimony of their belief that it is a branch of the identical fig-tree under which Gotama Buddha reclined at Uruwelaya when he underwent his apotheosis.' Its leaves are carried away as treasures by pilgrims; but it is too sacred to be touched with a knife, and therefore they are only gathered when they fall. BO'A, in popular language, the name of all those large serpents which kill their prey by entwining themselves around it, and constricting it in their coils; but by zoologists of the present day, limited as the name of a genus to a very small portion of their number, all of which are natives of the warm parts of America-the similar large serpents of Asia and Africa forming the genus Python (q. v.). The name B., however, was certainly not originally applied to American serpents, for it is used by Pliny, who accounts for its origin by a fable of serpents sucking the milk of cows, thus referring it, very improbably, to the Latin bos, an ox. The Linnæan genus B. comprehended all serpents having simple subcaudal plates, but without spur or rattle at the end of the tail, and was thus very artificial, as founded chiefly upon a single unimport ant character, and consisted of a very miscellaneous assemblage of species, venomous and non-venomous. The B. family, or Botde, as now constituted (containing the Pythons, &c., of the old world, as well as the true Boas of the new), is almost exclusively confined to tropical climates, and all the species are of large size and great strength, some of them far exceeding in these respects all other serpents. The story related by the ancients of a serpent 120 feet in length, which devoured several soldiers, and caused alarm to a Roman army in Africa, may perhaps be deemed unworthy of credit, although the skin is said to have been long preserved at Rome; but there is good reason to believe that serpents in more modern times have attained at least half this length, and have made even the larger mammalia, and sometimes man, their prey. The Boïda are not venomous; but their mouth, although destitute of poison-fangs, is so furnished with teeth as to make their bite very severe. Their teeth are numerous, long, and directed backwards, so as the more effectually to prevent the escape of the prey, which is first seized by the mouth, and then the serpent, with a rapidity of VO Head of Boa. motion which the eye of the closest observer fails perfectly to follow, coils itself around it; the powerful muscles of the body are afterwards brought into action to compress it, so that usually in a few minutes its life is extinct, and its bones are broken. Deglutition then takes place-not, as has been alleged, after the prey has been licked and covered with saliva by the tongue, but accompanied with an extraordinary flow of saliva, which seems not only to serve for lubrication, but to have the property of hastening the decomposition of animal substances, and so to assist in making the prey more easy to be swallowed. It is always swallowed entire, and the process is sometimes rather a tedious one, and seems to require no small muscular effort; but the muscles of the serpent are capable of acting for this purpose, even at the neck, when that usually narrowest part of the body is distended to an enormous degree as the prey passes through it. The lower jaw is not simply articulated to the skull, but by the intervention of other bones, a structure without which the prodigious dilatation of the throat would be impossible. The lungs consist of two lobes, one much larger than the other, and at the extremity of the larger is an extremely capacious air-bag, which is supposed to serve for the necessary aeration of the blood whilst respiration is impeded in the process of deglutition. The tail in all the Boïde has great prehensile power, and its grasp of a tree round which it may be coiled is aided by the opposing action of two claws, one on each side of the anus, which are really the representatives of the hinder limbs of the superior vertebrate animals, and which, on dissection, are found to be connected not only with strong muscles, but with bones entirely concealed within the serpent, one jointed to another, so as to make the character of a rudimentary limb very apparent. These serpents, being almost all inhabitants of watery places, often lie in wait for animals that come to drink; thus the largest of the American species, Boa (Eunectes) murina-sometimes called Anaconda Claw of Boa. BOADICEA-BOARD OF ADMIRALTY. although Anaconda seems to be originally, like B., | their collective capacity, who have the management the name of a serpent of the old world-is to be found where rivers or narrow lagoons are overshadowed by gloomy forests. Perhaps the want of sufficient supplies of water, more than the greater cold of the climate, may account for the short time that specimens of the Boïde brought to Europe have generally lived in confinement. After a repast, these serpents spend a considerable time in a state of comparative torpidity-several weeks generally elapsing before they waken up to require a new supply-and in this lethargic state they are easily killed. When they do waken up, the demands of appetite seem to be very urgent. Many of our readers must still remember the interest excited some years ago concerning a B. in the London Zoological Gardens, which, to the astonishishment of its keepers, swallowed its rug; but this, after a trial of a week or two, it found indigestible, and the animal then gratified public curiosity by a reversal of the process of deglutition. tion. The head in the Botda is thick, yet somewhat elongated; the eyes are small; the body is thickest in the middle; the tail usually has a blunt terminaThe scales are numerous and rather small. The colours are various, and in many of the species rather bright and elegantly disposed. The true boas have the plates underneath the tail single, whilst in the pythons they are double. The species to which the name Boa Constrictor is appropriated, is far from being one of the largest, seldom attaining a length of more than twelve feet. It is common in Surinam and Brazil, where its skin is used for making boots and saddle-cloths. The name Boa Constrictor is, however, popularly extended to almost any of the species.-The number of species, whether in the genus or in the family, is far from being well ascertained. Boas are much infested by intestinal worms, which appear often to cause their death. The excrement of the B.-the urine and fæces being combined as in other reptiles, and voided by a single vent-is a solid white substance, and consists mainly of urate of ammonia, accompanied by phosphate of lime (bone-earth). It is employed as an easy source of uric acid. of some public office or department, bank, railway, charity, or, indeed, of any other trust. Thus, the Commissioners of Customs, when met for the transaction of business, are called the B. of Customs; the Lords of the Treasury, the B. of Treasury; Commissioners of Excise, B. of Excise; directors of railways, B. of Directors; poor-law guardians, B. of Guardians, &c. See CUSTOMS, TREASURY, &c. BOARD, BOARDING. In nautical language, board is used with many significations. Besides its ordinary application to a plank of wood, B. is a space or portion of sea over which a ship passes in tacking; hence the phrases, 'to make a good board,' to make short boards,' 'to make a stern-board,'' to leave the land on back-board,' &c.—all of which refer to the direction of a ship's movement at a particular time and place. Again, board or aboard relates to the interior of the ship, in such phrases as 'to go aboard,' 'to heave overboard,' &c. But the most important of these meanings is that which relates to the boarding of an enemy's ship, or making a forcible entry for the sake of capturing it. Whenever this bold operation is determined on, certain seamen are told off to act as boarders. It is very rarely that, between two men-of-war, this operation is ventured on; it would, in most cases, be too perilous to the assailants, who more frequently conquer by cannon and musketry. Boarding is, in most instances, attempted by privateers against merchantmen, where the defenders are few in number. The assailant well considers all the circumstances for and against him-the relative sizes of the two vessels, the relative strength of the crews, the state of the wind and sea, and the chances of escape if foiled. Besides the pistols, cutlasses, and boarding-pikes of the seamen, there are provided powder-flasks for producing smoke and confusion on the enemy's deck, and shells called stink-pots, for producing an intolerable stench. The moment and the spot being selected, the fuses of the flasks and stink-pots are lighted; these combustibles are thrown upon the enemy's deck; and while the fire, smoke, and stench are doing their work by confusing the enemy, the boarders climb on board, and gain a mastery by their personal prowess-that is, if the calculations of relative strength have been duly made. Sometimes terrible hand-to-hand encounters take place on deck before victory decides for or against the assailants. BOADICE'A, a warrior-queen of the Iceni, a tribe inhabiting the eastern coast of Britain, in the time of the Romans. She flourished after the middle of the 1st century. Prasutagus, her husband, who died A. D. 60, or 61, had left his wealth jointly to the General Sir Howard Douglas, in his recent work Roman Emperor Nero, and to his two daughters, on 'Warfare with Steam,' expresses an opinion that hoping that by this artifice his kingdom would be steam war-ships are likely sometimes to come to protected from oppression; but the Roman soldiery, close quarters; and that, on that account, they should taking advantage of the defenceless condition of the be provided with a larger quota of marines and of country, began to plunder unscrupulously. B. her- boarding implements than have hitherto been supself was scourged, her daughters were violated, and plied to sailing ships. The defenders, he adds, the noblest among the Iceni were treated as slaves. should construct loopholed barricades across the These outrages soon drove the Britons to revenge. terminations of the quarter-deck and the foreB. gathered round her a large army; attacked castle, to prolong the defence within board. The and captured the Roman colony of Camalodunum; French naval officers, it is known, look forward to defeated Petilius Cerealis, legate of the ninth legion, a great increase in all such military resources on who was marching to its relief; took Londinium board war-steamers; and Sir Howard is endeavourand Verulamium; and destroyed, it is said, some-ing to impress similar convictions on the English where about 70,000 Romans, many of them by authorities. torture. Suetonius, the Roman governor of Britain, now advanced at the head of 10,000 men against B., who, we are informed, had under her command no less than 263,000. A dreadful battle ensued (62 A.D.), in which, according to Tacitus, 80,000 Britons perished, and only 400 Romans. These figures, of course, cannot be trusted; but the victory must have been decisive, as it finally established the authority of the Romans in Britain. B., overwhelmed with despair, committed suicide. BOARD OF ADMIRALTY, a government department which has the management of all matters concerning the British navy. In the article ADMIRAL, the steps are noticed by which the duties of the Lord High Admiral, in former days, were transferred to a Board of Commissioners. constitution and functions of this body will now be described. The The B. of A. comprises six lords commissioners, who decide collectively on all important questions. BOARD, the general name applied to persons in Besides this collective or corporate action, each has cause. BOARD OF ORDNANCE-BOAR'S HEAD. BOARD OF TRADE. See TRADE, BOARD OF. The Dory (q. v.) family, or Zetde, differing from the BOA'R-FISH (Capros), a genus of fishes of the genus Zeus, or Dory, in the still more protractile special duties assigned to him. There are two civil | in the cabinet, he had less political power. or political lords, and four naval or sea lords. The Board days were thrice a week; and each of the first lord, who is always a cabinet minister, besides four members had control over certain departments a general control, has the management of naval-the patronage of which was generally vested in estimates, finance, political affairs, slave-trade pre- him. Scarcely any improvements were made from vention, appointments, and promotions. The first 1828 till 1854, and the general arrangements were naval lord manages the composition and distribution very defective. Of the four members, the masterof the fleet, naval discipline, appointment of inferior general had a sort of general authority and veto; officers, commissioning ships, general instructions, the surveyor-general had control over the artillery, sailing orders, and the naval reserve. The second engineers, sappers and miners, ordnance, medical naval lord attends to armaments, manning the navy, corps, contracts, laboratory, gunpowder, barracks, the coast-guard, the marines, marine artillery, dock and navy gunners; the chief clerk managed the yard brigades, and naval apprentices. The third estimates, money-arrangements, civil establishment, naval lord attends to naval architecture, the build- pensions, superannuations, and ordnance property; ing and repairing of ships, steam-machinery, and while the storekeeper-general had charge of stores, new inventions. The fourth naval lord has control store-rooms, naval equipments, and naval war-stores. over the purchase and disposal of stores, victualling In matters relating to coast-defences, it was often ships, navy medical affairs, transports, convicts, and difficult to decide between the Admiralty and the pensioners. The junior civil lord attends to accounts, Ordnance: each board claiming authority. When mail-packets, Greenwich Hospital, naval chaplains, the Crimean disasters took place in 1854, the defects and schools. Under these six lords are two secre- of the B. of O. became fully apparent: it could not taries-in-chief, who manage the daily office work. work harmoniously with the other government The lords all resign when the prime minister resigns, departments. The Board was dissolved, the office and are usually replaced by others. This change of master-general abolished, and the duties were gives rise to many evils. There is likely to be a distributed among different branches of the Warchange of views and of system: the new Board is office, in a way that will be briefly noticed under not bound to act on the plans of its predecessors; WAR DEPARTMENT. and many of the costly novelties in the navy within the last ten years are directly traceable to this The system is defended on the plea that these changes infuse new blood into the Admiralty, and give fair-play to increased knowledge and new plans. Some statesmen advocate a modified plan: proposing to render a few naval officers of rank permanent lords of the Admiralty, and only changing the others on a change of ministry. A connectinglink between the old and new Boards is the surveyor of the navy, who is a permanent officer. Every morning, a junior lord assists a clerk in apportioning all letters and dispatches among the several departments. Each lord of a department then attends to his own. The secretaries and the lords determine which letters ought to be submitted to the Board collectively and that portion of the correspondence is treated as in most boards and committees. All delicate or doubtful matters are specially reserved for the first lord; but in the Board meetings he has only one vote, like the rest. The Admiralty House at Whitehall being too small for the business required to be done, many rooms in Somerset House are also appropriated by the Board; an arrangement that leads to much waste of time. The offices of the surveyor of the navy, the accountant-general, the storekeeper-general, the comptroller of victualling and transports, the navy medical department, the comptroller of steam machinery, and the director of works are at Somerset House; and numerous messengers are employed all day long in conveying letters, documents, and messages from those departments to the Admiralty, where the lords, the chief secretaries, and the hydrographer have their offices. BOARD OF O'RDNANCE, a government department having the management of all affairs relating to the artillery and engineering corps of the British army. Under this precise designation, the Board no longer exists: a change having recently been made which requires brief explanation. The B. of O., until 1854, comprised the master-general of the Ordnance, the surveyor-general, the clerk of the Ordnance, and the principal storekeeper. There was no chairman at the meetings, and the Board often consisted of only one officer. The mastergeneral had a veto, and was in that respect more powerful than the chief member of the Board of Admiralty; although, not having necessarily a seat mouth-the resemblance of which to the snout of a hog is supposed to have given origin to the name -in the want of spines at the base of the dorsal Boar-Fish (C. Aper). and anal fins, and of long filaments to the dorsal spines. The body has the usual oval, much compressed form of the family. The common B. (C. Aper) is a well-known inhabitant of the Mediterranean, rarely caught on the coasts of England. The eyes are very large, and placed far forward; the body is of a carmine colour, lighter below, and with seven transverse orange bands on the back. The flesh is little esteemed. BOAR'S HEAD. The B. H. is the subject of a variety of legends, poetic allusions, and carols connected with the festivities of Christmas in England. At this wintry season, the wild boar was hunted, and his head served up as the most important dish on the baronial table. According to Scott's graphic lines: Then was brought in the lusty brawn Then the grim boar's head frowned on high, Well can the green-garbed ranger tell, And all the baiting of the boar. BOAST-BOATING. The boar's head erased,' according to heraldic phraseology, is a well-known cognizance of a number of old families, particularly the Gordons; it also formed the sign of a tavern at Eastcheap, London, which has been immortalised by Shakspeare. On the site of this famed tavern now stands the statue of William IV. BOAST (Fr. Ebaucher), a word in use with sculptors. To B., as its French original implies, is to block out a piece of stone or wood, so as to form a rude approach to the ultimate figure, leaving the smaller details to be worked out afterwards. Ornamental portions of buildings are often inserted in their places in this condition, and frequently remain so if they are in an obscure position. BOAT is the general name for a small open vessel. Boats differ, however, greatly one from another. They may be slight or strong, sharp or flat-bottomed, decked or undecked, swift for despatch or roomy for cargo, ornamental for pleasure or plain for hard service, deep or light of draught for deep or shallow water. The chief varieties supplied to ships of war are the following-Long-B.: the largest B. of a ship, furnished with mast and sails; it is either armed and equipped, to render warlike service in certain situations, or it is employed to fetch water, wood, provisions, and heavy stores on board. Launch: longer and more flat-bottomed than the long-B.; being rowed with a greater number of oars, it makes more rapid progress up rivers. Barge: a long, narrow, light B., employed in carrying the principal officers to and from the ship; for other kinds of boats or vessels under this name, see BARGE. Pinnace: a B. for the accommodation of the inferior officers; it has usually eight oars, whereas the barge has ten or more. Cutter: broader, deeper, and shorter than the barge or pinnace; it is rowed with six oars, sometimes hoisting a sail, and is chiefly employed in carrying light stores, provisions, and crew. Jolly-B.: a smaller cutter, rowed with four oars instead of six. Yawl: small in size, and used for nearly the same purposes as cutters and jolly-boats. Gig: a long narrow B., rowed with six or eight oars, and employed by the chief officer on expeditions requiring speed. Some of the abovenamed boats are diagonal-built for strength; the others are clincher-built, to be as light as possible. The largest ships of war carry boats of all these various kinds, varying in weight from 110 cwt. down to 10 cwt.; the smaller ships carry fewer; while merchant-ships have seldom more than threeexcept passenger-ships, which are bound by law to carry boats enough to save all the passengers and crew in case of disaster. There are other kinds of boats which do not belong to ships. See BOATING. In reference to the legal regulation of boats in the merchant-service, the following are the chief provisions: When a B. belongs to any ship or other vessel, the name of the vessel and of the place to which she belongs must be painted on the outside of the stern of the B., and the master's name within side the transom-the letters to be white or yellow on a black ground. Boats not belonging to ships or other vessels must be inscribed with the name of the owners and the port to which they belong. All boats having double sides or bottoms, or any secret places adapted for the concealment of goods, are liable to forfeiture. The boats intended for the rescue of shipwrecked persons, or crews and passengers exposed to that danger, are described under LIFE-BOAT. BOAT-FLY (Notonecta), a genus of insects of the order Hemiptera (q. v.), suborder, Heteroptera, and of the family of the Hydrocorise, or Waterbugs (q. v.). All of them, like the rest of the family, are aquatic insects. Their English name is derived from their boat-like form, eminently adapted for progression in water, and probably also from their remarkable habit of always swimming on their back-peculiar to the genus Notonecta, as restricted by recent entomologists-and of resting in this posture suspended at the surface of the water. The known species of this genus are not numerous. One of them, N. glauca (sometimes called the Water Boatman), is common in Britain it is about half an inch long, and varies considerably in colour; but exhibits a general greenish tinge, the other well, but seldom use their wings. They move with colours being black, brown, and gray. They fly difficulty on dry ground. When they descend into the water, they carry down a supply of air for respiration in a hollow between their folded wings. They feed on animal substances, and often kill and devour those of their own species. Water Boatman (N. glauca). BOATING, the art of managing and propelling a boat. This is done either by means of oars or sails. As sailing is fully treated under the head of YACHTING, rowing only is dealt with here. The most ancient form of boat known to have been used in the British Islands is the coracle; it is still much used in Wales. The coracle is but a large wickerwork basket, covered with skins, or some thin waterproof substance stretched over the wicker-work, strengthened by a cross seat. Seated in one of these rude boats, with but a single paddle, it is astonishing with what dexterity the paddler will skim over broken water, and avoid dangers which would infallibly destroy a heavier or less manageable craft. From the coracle spring all the varied classes of boats now in use, either as pendants to ships, or as used for pleasure traffic or a means of conveyance upon our rivers and inland waters. The wherry next claims attention. There are many kinds of wherries, but we only notice the Thames wherry. This is stoutly built, and is constructed to carry about eight passengers. It is usually managed by one sculler or two oarsmen; it is almost entirely employed by watermen for the conveyance of passengers or pleasure-parties. The boats used for rowing as a sport or pastime are of a much lighter and sharper build. They are constructed of all sizes,, to carry from eight oarsmen down to a single sculler. Of this class of boats, for racing purposes, we have the 8, 6, 4, 2, and single pair oared boats; while in contests between single scullers, we have what is denominated the wager-boat-a boat so frail and light in its proportions, that none but a most experienced sculler can sit in one without danger of upsetting. For pleasure, we have another class of |