BLAKE BLANC. equal force, he at once attacked him, and after a the town it contracts, and breaks into cascades with sufficient fall to turn the machinery of several manufactories. B. is a thriving place, with cloth and linen yarn mills, potteries, tanneries, vinegarworks, forges, &c. It is very ancient, having been frequented by the Romans. Pop. about 5000. BLANC, MONT. See MONT BLANC. BLANC, JEAN JOSEPH LOUIS, a celebrated French Socialist and historian, was born at Madrid, 28th October 1813. In 1820, he was placed in the college at Rhodez; in 1830, he went to Paris, and became a clerk in an attorney's office for a short time; but in 1832 he was intrusted with the education of the son of M. Hallette, mechanist of Arras. Here he resided for two years, contributing largely, on literary and political subjects, to the Progrès du Pas-de-Calais. He afterwards went to Paris, where he contributed to various political papers, and where in 1838 he founded the Revue du Progrès Politique, Social et Littéraire, in which he laid down in a more quiet and leisurely way his Socialistic theory. In this he brought out his chief work on Socialism, the Organisation du Travail, which, in 1840, appeared in a separate form. The book obtained for its author a wide, enthusiastic popularity among the French ouvriers, who were captivated by the brilliancy of the writing, the symmetrical simplicity of the scheme, and the freshness of the views advo cated. The book denounces the doctrine of individualism-i. e., individual and competitive efforts in labour-and advocates the absorption of the individual in a vast 'solidarity,' where each would receive according to his needs, and contribute according to his abilities.' B. next published (in 1841-1844) a historical work, entitled Révolution Française: Histoire de Dix Ans, 1830-1840, which produced a deadly effect on the Orleans dynasty. Louis Philippe afterwards declared that it acted like a battering-ram against the bulwarks of loyalty in France.' It owed its success partly to the exposure it gave of the scandalous jobbery_and immorality of the crown and its advisers, partly to that passionate ardour which changed the tranquillity of history into the vehemence of a pamphlet, and partly to its academic pomp of style. This was followed by the first volume of a Histoire de la BLAKE, WILLIAM, a celebrated engraver and poet, was born in London, 1757. In 1789, he pub-not only to describe, from his own point of view, the Révolution Française, in which the author's aim is lished Songs of Innocence and of Experience, shewing incidents of the first revolution, but the social the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul, with On the breaking out of the about 60 etchings, remarkable for their peculiar and history of the 18th c. original manner. The poems were equally singular, February revolution of 1848, B. seemed likely to but many of them exhibited true pathos. Some play an important part. His connection with the marginal designs for Young's Night Thoughts, exe- party of the Réforme journal, and his popularity cuted by B., were greatly admired by Flaxman. B. with the working-classes, led to his being appointed lived in the full belief that he held converse with a member of the Provisional Government. He was the spirits of the departed great-among others, placed by government at the head of the great with those of Moses, Homer, Virgil, Dante, and commission for discussing the problem of labour. Milton, and that some of these spirits came to him to At the same time, Marie, Minister of Public Works, have their portraits taken! He published numerous the so-called national workshops, which were to began but without B.'s co-operation-to establish etchings, chiefly of religious and cognate subjects, among the best of which are his Illustrations of the bring about the realisation of the Socialistic principle, Book of Job, and the illustrations of Blair's Grave. but which only proved the hazardous and impracHe died (August 12, 1828) in poverty and obscurity, workshops led to the arrest of the 15th May with the conviction that he was a martyr to poetic 1848, when B. nominally, if not actually, again art. Charles Lamb regarded him as one of the most extraordinary persons of the age;' and Mrs played a prominent part. A proposal was made to Jameson, in her Sacred and Legendary Art, speaks prosecute him, but it was negatived by the National of his conception of angels in the highest terms Assembly. After the June insurrection, he was again of praise. accused, and prosecuted for conspiracy, but contrived to escape to London, where he still resides. During his exile, he has devoted himself to political and historical literature. In 1849 appeared his Appel aux Honnêtes Gens, and Catéchisme des Socialistes; in 1850, Pages d'Histoire de la Révolution de Février; and in 1851, Plus de Girondins; la République Une BLANC, LE, a town of France, in the department of the Indre, with a beautiful situation on the Creuse, which divides the town into two parts, about 32 miles west-south-west of Châteauroux. Above B., the river expands so as to form a lake, but at ticable character of B.'s doctrines. The national BLANCH-BLANDRATA. et Indivisible. The work which is likely to secure him the most enduring reputation, is his History of the French Revolution. It is characterised by extensive and original research, which has frequently enabled the author to reverse the common verdicts on historical personages, and to explode many of the extravagant stories of the stormy period of which it treats. In style, it is eloquent, bold, and dignified; and if its sentiments do not always commend themselves to the sober judgment of English readers, there can be but one opinion in regard to its candour, impartiality, and power. It is intended to consist of 12 vols., of which 10 have been already published. In occasional letters in the Times, B. displays a mastery of the English language that few Frenchmen attain. BLANCH or BLENCH HOLDING is one of the ancient feudal tenures in the law of Scotland relating to land, the duty payable to the superior or lord being in general a trifling sum, as a penny Scots, or merely illusory, as a peppercorn, if asked only, although it may happen that the duty is of greater value. Anciently, many estates in Scotland were held, both of the crown and other superiors, by this tenure; but it is now seldom adopted in the constitution of an original right of property. See CHARTER, TENURE. BLANCHE-LYON, the title of one of the English pursuivants-at-arms. See PURSUIVANT. BLA'NCHING is a process resorted to by gardeners, to prevent certain secretions which in ordinary circumstances take place in the leaves of plants, and to render them more pleasant and wholesome for food. The action of light is indispensable to the decomposition of carbonic acid by the leaves of plants, and, consequently, to the elaboration of many of the substances from which they derive their peculiar qualities: the exclusion of light, therefore, renders them white, or nearly so, and deprives them of much of their natural coarseness and bitterness о as in the familiar examples of lettuce, celery, seakale, &c. B. is accomplished in various ways, as by drawing up earth to the plants, when the lower part of the leaf or leaf-stalk alone is to be blanched; tying the whole leaves together, by which the inner ones are blanched in a somewhat imperfect way, as is commonly done with lettuce; covering Blanching-pot. with boxes, pots, or the like, as the practice is with sea-kale; causing the leaves to grow up through litter, &c. The figure represents a very convenient B.-pot, of French invention; it is made of earthenware, and perforated with many holes. B., although so simple and easy, is of great importance in the art of gardening, and the usefulness of many plants very much depends upon it. In cabbage, and some other cultivated plants whose leaves form themselves into compact heads, there is a natural B. or etiolation. quarter of a pound of sugar, a quarter of an ounce of cinnamon, a little grated nutmeg, half of the peel of a lemon, and a bay-leaf, prepared as above. B. is also made of calf's-foot jelly and eggs, of arrow-root and milk, &c.; and the flavour is modified to taste. BLA'NCO, CAPE, a remarkable headland on the west coast of Africa, in lat. 20° 47' N., and long. 16° 58' W., the extremity of a rocky ridge (called Jebelel-Bied, or White Mountain) which projects from the Sahara in a westerly direction, and then bending southward, forms a commodious harbour called the Great Bay. The bay and town of Arguin, which is supposed to have been the limit of ancient navigation in this direction, lie some miles to the southward. Southward to the mouth of the Rio Grande the shores are of a low sandy character, with a current tending south-west, and prevalent north-east trade-wind; northward from Cape B. to Cape Geer, the coast is rocky, with a moderate elevation. On account of the deficiency of good harbours, the prevalence of west winds, and other causes, the casualties to shipping are very numerous. The constancy of west wind on a coast almost wholly within the sphere of the trade-winds, is very remarkable, and is accounted for by the rarefaction of the air by the heat of the sands of the Sahara. The natives of the Canary Islands carry on a pretty lucrative fishery in the bay in boats of from 100 to 150 tons burden. Cape B., which is composed of mixed calcareous and silicious sandstone, was first discovered by the Portuguese in 1441.-Cape B. is also the name of several less important headlands in Spain, Greece, America, and the Philippines. BLANC-MA'NGE, so called from its white appearance, is a jelly made of isinglass and milk. The following is the ordinary recipe for making it. Take a quart of sweet milk or cream, and put in it two ounces of the best isinglass, with the rind of a lemon, a blade of mace, and white sugar to taste. Put the whole in a saucepan, and let it boil a quarter of an hour; then mix with 6 bitter almonds and 24 sweet ones, beaten into a paste with a little water; strain through a piece of muslin; and having let the composition settle a little, pour into a mould, and turn it out when cold. Soyer gives one ounce of isinglass to a quart of milk, a It BLAND, a beverage which is-or formerly was -a common drink among the inhabitants of the Shetland Islands during the summer months. is prepared from the whey or serum of churned milk, and is said to be an agreeable beverage. Dr Edmondston, in his View of the Zetland Islands, describes B. as being, when twelve months old, perfectly good and transparent; its flavour then bearing a strong resemblance to lemon-juice. BLA'NDFORD-FO'RUM, or MARKET BLANDFORD, a town in Dorsetshire, on the right bank of the Stour, 16 miles north-east of Dorchester. It lies in a fine tract of pasture-land, famed for its multitude of cows. It suffered much in 1579, 1677, 1713, and 1731, from fire. It is built of brick, and is neat and regular. It was formerly famed for its manufactures of bandstrings and lace, the point-lace bringing £30 a yard. Shirt-buttons are made here. Pop. in 1851, 2504. BLANDRATA, GIORGIO, the founder of Unitarianism in Poland and Transylvania, was a native of Saluzzo, in Italy. He had established himself as a physician at Pavia, when he was compelled, on account of his heretical opinions, to fly to Geneva in 1556, where at first, and to avoid further molestation, he feigned to agree with Calvin. In 1558, he went to Poland, hoping to find there greater freedom of thought and speech; and in 1563 he betook himself to the court of John Sigismund, Prince of Transylvania, whose favourite physician he became. Here he exerted himself prudently but assiduously to spread his doctrines, and succeeded in forming a considerable party. old age, however, the heat of his proselytising zeal died out; and it is asserted that, to preserve his worldly interests, he even forsook the cause of the Unitarians, and favoured that of the Jesuits, who were in high esteem with the prince. He was murdered in 1590 by his nephew, whom he had threatened to disinherit on account of his attachment to the Catholic Church. B.'s religious treatises are entirely destitute of importance. In his 143 BLANE-BLANQUI. BLANE, SIR GILBERT, a distinguished physician, was born at Blanefield, Ayrshire, August 29, 1749. He studied at Edinburgh University, and afterwards became private physician to Lord Rodney, whom in that capacity he accompanied in 1780, when Rodney assumed the command of the West Indian squadron. On one occasion, when all the officers were wounded, B.'s bravery was so conspicuous, that Lord Rodney immediately obtained for him the appointment of In 1785, he was elected physician to the fleet. physician to St Thomas's Hospital, London, having previously been appointed physician-extraordinary to the Prince of Wales. In 1795, he was chosen head of the Navy Medical Board, and was greatly instrumental in introducing the use of lemon-juice, so effective in preventing scurvy, into every vessel in the navy; and in many other ways he was active in promoting measures for the prevention or remedy of diseases on board ship. In 1809, he was employed to report on the cause of the unhealthiness of the Walcheren army, and the following year he was sent to inquire into the expediency of establishing a naval arsenal and dockyard at Northfleet. In 1812, he had a baronetcy conferred upon him, and in the same year the Prince Regent made him his physician in ordinary. When the Duke of Clarence ascended the throne as William IV. in 1830, he made B., then 81 years old, his first physician. B. died June 26, 1834. He published several valuable works, characterised by varied knowledge and originality of thought, the most popular and useful of which are, Observations on the Diseases of Seamen, a lecture on Muscular Motion, and Elements of Medical Logic. BLA'NÉS, a town of Spain, in the province of Gerona, and 22 miles south of the city of that name, with a port on the Mediterranean. Pop. 5000. BLANK BONDS were Scotch securities, in which the creditor's name was left blank, and which passed by mere delivery, the bearer or holder being at liberty to insert his name in the blank space, and sue for payment. The intention originally was to save the expense of conveyances, and to facilitate the transmission of the obligation; but experience having proved that they were capable of being used for fraudulent purposes, these bonds were, by a Scottish act, passed in 1696, declared void. The act, however, excepts from its provisions the notes of trading companies, and indorsements of bills of exchange. See BOND, SECURITY. The distinction BLANK CARTRIDGES. between blank and ball cartridges will be found noticed under CARTRIDGE. most countries to shake it off. The first specimen BLANQUI, JÉRÔME ADOLPHE, one of the first To be or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer. In Italian and Spanish, B. V. never became popular, and still less in French. The German language seems to admit every variety of blank metre. French economists, was born at Nice, 28th November 1798, and educated at the Lyceum of that city. In 1814, his family quitted Nice, and young B. went to complete his studies at Paris, where he became acquainted with J. B. Say, who induced him to turn his attention to the study of political economy. In 1825, by Say's recommendation, he was appointed Professor of History and of Industrial Economy in the Commercial School at Paris. On the death of Say, he was appointed Professor of Industrial Economy in the Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers, and was one of the editors of the Dictionnaire de Industrie Manufacturière, Commerciale, et Agricole. In June 1838, he became a member of the Academy of Moral and Political Science. The Academy sent him to Corsica, to study the condition of that country, and in 1839, to Algiers for the same purpose. In 1841, he visited Turkey. In 1851, the Academy, which highly valued his abilities, requested him to furnish a complete account of London in its financial and other aspects. This task he executed to the satisfaction of the savans who employed him. He died at Paris on the 28th January 1854. B., as a national economist, was somewhat inclined to Socialism. Like his master, Say, he was in favour of free-trade. In method, he is ingenious; in style, transparent; and even the dryest discussions become interesting, from his lively mode of treating them. His principal works are-Voyage d'un Jeune Français en Angleterre et en Ecosse (Paris, 1824); Résumé de l'Histoire du Commerce et de l'Industrie (Paris, 1826); Précis Elémentaire d'Economie Poli tique, précédé d'une Introduction Historique, et suivi d'une Biographie des Economistes, &c. (Paris, 1826); BLANK VERSE is verse without rhyme (q. v.), and, most important of all, the Histoire de l'Econoand depending upon metre (q. v.) alone. The clas-mie Politique en Europe, depuis les Anciens jusqu'à sical productions of the Greek and Roman poets-nos jours, suivie d'une Bibliographie raisonnée des Principaux Ouvrages d'Economie Politique. at least such of them as have come down to usare composed on this principle; and accordingly, when the passion for imitating classical models set in, rhyme came to be looked upon as an invention of Gothic barbarism, and attempts were made in BLA'NKENBURG, a town in the duchy of Brunswick, 37 miles south-south-east of the capital, is situated on the Harz Mountains, at an elevation of 732 feet above the sea. It is walled, has a gymnasium, and several charitable and educational institutions. Pop. 3500, who are chiefly engaged in mining; iron, marble, and dye-earths being plentiful in the On the Blankenstein, a surrounding districts. rocky height immediately adjoining the town, there is a palace belonging to the Duke of Brunswick; and on the lofty summit of the Regenstein, about half a mile distant, there are the remains of a large castle, with many chambers, hewn out of the rock by Henry the Fowler in 919. Louis XVIII. resided at B. as Comte de Lille, 1796--1798. BLANQUI, LOUIS AUGUSTE, the brother of the economist, was born at Nice in 1805. He has made himself conspicuous chiefly by his rabid advocacy of the most extreme political opinions. BLAPS-BLASPHEMY. From an early age, he dabbled in conspiracy, and submitted to its penalties with the pride of a martyr. After the revolution of February, he formed the Central Republican Society, which menaced the very existence of the Provisional Government. He it was also who organised the revolutionary attentat of the 15th May, the aim of which was to overthrow the Constituent Assembly, although it has been alleged that he was driven to this step by the impatience and violence of his party, or, more properly, his club. At the head of an excited mass, he made his appearance before the national representatives, and with that melodramatic love of liberty which makes a French patriot fancy it to be his first and most sacred function to emancipate the world, demanded the resuscitation of the Polish nationality! His coadjutor, M. Huber, went a step further, and theatrically imitating the desperate promptitude of the great Revolution, pronounced the dissolution of the assembly. The latter fortunately proved itself strong enough to crush this insolence. B. was arrested, tried, and condemned to ten years' imprisonment in Belleisle. comb has probably been mistaken for a fish-bone, and that the story of the rich widow's only son is simply a myth elaborated in explanation of the circumstance. St B.'s day is the 3d February. BLA'SPHEMY is an offence against God and religion, by denying to the Almighty his being and providence; or by contumelious reproaches of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; also all profane scoffing at the Holy Scriptures, or exposing them to ridicule and contempt. Seditious words, moreover, in derogation of the established religion may be proved under a charge of blasphemy. These all are offences punishable at common law by fine and imprisonment, or other infamous corporal punishment; for Christianity is held to be part of the laws of England; and a blasphemous libel may be prosecuted as an offence at common law, and punished with fine and imprisonment. In Gathercole's case, tried at York in 1838, where the defendant, a clergyman of the Church of England, was prosecuted for a libel on a Roman Catholic nunnery, and in which he also made a violent attack on the tenets and the morality of the Roman Catholic Church, it was laid down by the BLAPS, a genus of insects, of the order Coleoptera, judge who tried the case (the late Baron Alderson), the type of a tribe called Blapsides, the species of that a person may, without being liable to prosecuwhich are numerous, all of a dark colour, destitute tion for it, attack Judaism, or Mohammedanism, or of wings, and having the elytra or wing-cases united even any sect of the Christian religion, save the estatogether. They run slowly, however, in compari-blished religion of the country; and the only reason son with many kinds of beetles, and inhabit dark why the latter is in a different situation from the and damp situations, feeding chiefly on dead vege- and is therefore a part of the constitution of the others is, because it is the form established by law, table matter. They have the power of secreting and emitting a brownish, acrid, irritating fluid, of a is also the subject of criminal prosecution, because country. But any general attack on Christianity peculiar and penetrating odour, with which they appear to be furnished for the purpose of self- Christianity is the public religion of the country. defence, and which some of them are capable of Thus, as an offence against religion, B. may assume throwing to a distance of six or eight inches. Blaps and creeds of the Established Church; or secondly, one of two forms: first, either as against the articles mortisaga is a common British species, of about an as against a dissenting community, in the libel inch long, and of a shin- against whom, a general attack on the Christian ing black colour. It is religion is involved. The B. must in some manner have been overtly and publicly declared, either by a speech on some public occasion, or by the act of publication in print. sometimes called DARK LING BEETLE, and CHURCH- The Scotch law regarding this offence is now The old severe Scotch acts, Cockroach (q.v.) the appel- very much the same. lation of BLACK BEETLE. one passed in 1661, and another in 1695, which It is a frequent companion provided capital punishment for offences of this of the cockroach in pan-description, were repealed by the 53 Geo. III. c. 160. tries and cellars.-Blaps The punishment is now arbitrary at common law; sulcata is cooked with and by the 6 Geo. IV. c. 47, the punishment of B. Blaps mortisaga. butter, and eaten by Turk- is further restricted, and made the same as in ish women in Egypt, under the notion that it England. It is also enacted by the second section will make them fat, this being, in their estimation, offence may be adjudged, at the discretion of the of that act, that a person convicted of a second one of the chief points of beauty. court, either to suffer the punishment of fine or BLA'SIUS, a saint and martyr, was Bishop of imprisonment, or both, or to be banished the country; Sebaste, in Cappadocia, when Licinius began a bloody but the provision as to the punishment of banishpersecution of the Christians. B. left the town, and ment is repealed by the 7 Will. IV. c. 5. The latest concealed himself in an unknown chasm in the and most remarkable illustration of the Scotch law rocks, but his abode was discovered by Agricola, regarding this offence, is a case that was tried before while out hunting. The saint was conveyed to the High Court of Justiciary in 1843. The prisoner, Sebaste, and as he steadfastly refused to deny Christ, who defended himself, was accused, convicted, and and worship the heathen gods, he was put to death sentenced to imprisonment for fifteen months, for (316 A.D.) with circumstances of the most horrid publishing profane, impious, and blasphemous books, cruelty. At one period, his worship must have been containing a denial of the truth and authority of the widely diffused, judging from the extent of territory Holy Scriptures and of the Christian religion; and over which his relics were scattered. The wool-devised, contrived, and intended to ridicule and combers claim him as their patron, for the singular | bring into contempt the same. In the course of the reason that he was tortured, among other instru- trial, the prisoner endeavoured to justify his conduct ments, with a wool-comb. At Bradford, in Yorkshire, by quotations from the Bible, which, he maintained, there is a septennial procession of that craft on his day. The practice of invoking St B. in cases of sore throats, is said to have originated in the circumstance that, when young, he saved the only son of a rich widow from being choked by a fish-bone. It has been conjectured, however, that the wool warranted the language of the blasphemous works in question. But the court would not allow such a line of defence, and the Lord Justice-clerk (the late Right Honourable John Hope), in charging the jury, pointed out that the indictment charged, that the wicked and felonious publication of such BLAST FURNACE-BLASTING. works is a crime, and that therefore the jury were in the construction of these furnaces, so that the not to consider themselves engaged in any theo-high temperature to which they are subjected may logical discussion, but simply in trying whether a not fissure or destroy them. The upper part of known and recognised offence against the law had the B. F. (fig.), A, is named the cone or body, and been committed. His lordship proceeded further to is cased in a double firebrick lining; between the expound the law as follows: 'Now, the law of inner lining or skirt, and the outer, a space interScotland, apart from all questions of church establish- venes, which is filled in with coarse sand or small ment or church government, has declared that the pieces of scoriæ; and outside of these, a thick Holy Scriptures are of supreme authority. It gives wall, a, of common stone or strong bricks, is placed, every man the right of regulating his faith or not by which, in its turn, is often surrounded by a strong the standard of the Holy Scriptures, and gives full thick casing of wrought iron. On the top of this scope to private judgment, regarding the doctrines erection there is a short shaft, B, with doors or contained therein; but it expressly provides, that openings for feeding the furnace, and a terrace, all "blasphemies shall be suppressed," and that they round which fuel, &c., may be conveyed to the who publish opinions "contrary to the known prin- different sides. The lower cone of the furnace, ciples of Christianity," may be lawfully called to C, usually named the boshes, is surrounded with account, and proceeded against by the civil magis- very refractory firebrick. The junction of the trate. This law does not impose upon individuals body and boshes is rounded off, so as to prevent any obligations as to their belief. It leaves free and a sharp angle in which material might lodge, and independent the right of private belief, but it care- the part is named the belly. Below the boshes fully protects that which was established as part of is a quadrangular or cylindrical space, D, which the law, from being brought into contempt. The slightly narrows as it approaches the bottom learned judge also observed: 'I think it also my or hearth of the furnace. The latter is made up duty to add-as a part of the [prisoner's] address was of firestone, supported on masonry. The space directed against the policy and expediency of this between the cylindrical or quadrangular space, prosecution that I think it was a most proper and fit D, and the hearth, is called the crucible, and is prosecution. I have no doubt of the effect that will intended for the collection of the reduced metal and result from this prosecution; because, though, in his slag. The building on three sides is carried down advertisement and address, this individual declares to the hearth; but on the fourth side it stops that he addresses himself chiefly to the working-short with a heavy block of stone, called the tymp. classes of Scotland, yet I am sure that he deceives In front of the tymp-stone, and a little below it, is himself if he imagines that that is a class which placed the dam-stone, which is covered externally, would easily part with their belief in those truths, and kept in its proper place by a strong piece which are perhaps more valuable to them in this of cast iron, called the dam-plate. On the three life than to any other class in the community. sides of the B. F. which are built down to the hearth There may, indeed, be a class of persons, like the there are several openings, through which pipes prisoner at the bar, in situations above that of the called tuyeres, F (q. v.), are introduced, and through working-classes, young men whose education is which the air is blown into the furnace from a imperfect, and their reading misdirected; and it is large air-condensing apparatus similar in principle to save them from the mischief of these opinions to an ordinary pair of bellows. The B. F. varies in that it is necessary the law should take its course.' size according to amount of work to be done, and See RELIGION, OFFENCES AGAINST. the kind of raw material to be operated upon; but in height it ranges from 30 to 70 feet. The mode of working the B. F. will be described under IRON. BLAST FU'RNACE is the apparatus employed in the smelting of iron ores. Internally, it is shaped BLASTING. Before gunpowder was invented, the separation of masses of stone from their native rock could only be effected by means of the hammer and wedge, or by the still slower method of fire and water. In soft and stratified rock, wedges are still used for quarrying stones for building purposes; but in hard rock, or where regularity of fracture is no object, gunpowder is universally employed. There are two kinds of B.-first, the small-shot system; and second, that of large blasts or mines.' The small-shot system consists of boring holes into the rock, of from one to six inches in diameter, and of various depths, according to circumstances. In hard rock, this is done by a steel-pointed drill, struck by a hammer, and turned partly round after each blow, to make the hole cylindrical. In soft rock, whenever the hole is to be vertical, a 'jumper' is used; this is a weighted drill, which acts merely by its own weight, when let fall from about a foot in height. The powdered stone is removed at intervals by a 'scraper.' The depth of hole drilled in a given time varies, of course, with the hardness of the rock, and the diameter of the hole. At Holyhead, the average work done by three men in hard quartz rock, with 1 inch drills, is 14 inches in depth per hour; one man holding the drill, and two striking. After the hole is bored, it is cleaned out, and dried with a wisp of hay, and the powder poured down; or, where the hole is not vertical, pushed down with a wooden rammer. A wad of dry turf or hay is put over the charge, and the rest of the hole 'tamped," or filled with broken stone, clay, or sand. The shot |