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FIRE-«afj.— Church-wardens in London, and within the bills of mortality, are to fix fire-cocks at proper diftances in ftreets, and keep a large engine and hand-engine for extinguishing ./fre, under the penalty of 10 1. Stat. 6. An. c. 31. YiRE-damp, in natural hiftory. See Damp, Cycl.
It is other wife called fulminating Damp. FiRE-filaire, in ichthyology, a name given by us to a fpecies of the raja or ray-fifli, called by the generality of authors pajlinacha marina. It is diftinguifhed by Artedi from the other fpecies of the raja by the name of the fmooth bodied ray with no fins to the tail, but with a long bony fpine in it, ferrated on one fide. This is the trygum and tragum of the old ichthyologifts, and is called by the modern Italians, bancho. See Pastinacha Marina.
YiRE-lock, or Fusil, a fmall gun which fires with a flint. It is diftinguifhed from an old musket or match-lock, which was fir'd with a match. The firelock is now in common ufe in the European armies.
TiRE-potSy are fmall earthen pots, into which is put a grenade filled with fine powder till the grenade be covered ; and then the pot is covered with a piece of parchment, and two pieces of match laid acrofs and lighted. This pot being thrown where it isdefigned to do execution, breaks and fires the powder, and thereby fires the powder in the grenade, which ought to have no fuze, that its operation may be the quicker.
FiRE-Jbips, in the navy, veffels charged with artificial fire- works ; which having the wind of an enemies fhip, grapples her, and fets her on fire.
IFiRE-zuater, a name given to alkahefl* See Ignis Aqua.
FiRE-wsrks. The invention of fireworks is by M. Mahudel at- tributed to the Florentines and people of Siena; who found out likewife the method of adding decorations to them of fta- tues, with fire iffuing from their eyes and mouths. Hilt. Acad, Infcript. T. 2. p. 435.
FIRING -jt«7, in the manege, is apiece of copper or iron, a- bout a foot long, one end of which is made flat, and forged like a knife ; the back of it being half an inch thick, and the fore edge about the fifth or fixth part of this. When the farrier has made his firing-iron red hot in his forge, he applies the thinnefr. part to the horfes skin, and fo gives the fire to the hams, orfuch places as ftand in need of it.
FIRLOT, a dry meafure ufed in Scotland. The oat fir lot t which contains 21 £ pints of that country, is 19 ^ inches in diameter both at top and bottom, being of a perfect cylindrical form, and in depth 7 y inches. The wheat firht contains about 221 1 cubical inches, and the barley firht 31 ftandard pints. Where- by it appears that the Scotch wheat firht exceeds the Englifh bufhelby 33 cubical inches. Tr. Pratt. Geom. p. 115, 217.
FIRM-cn?, a kind of lead ore. See Lead ore.
FIRST mover, in the antient aftronomy. See Primum Mo- bile, Cycl.
FIRUZINUS color, a term that frequently occurs in fome of the old writers on gems, and has been miftaken by many to mean a rufty brown ; and by others, black : but thefe are not colours to be fought after among the gums, and yet it is to thufe that this epithet is ufually applied. We find it ufed for a blue kind of jaiper by fome authors, the fame with the jafpis boreas of Pliny and Diofcorides, and by others for thefapphire, which fome of the antients, particularly Tbeop brail us, having called fjLtKctixt, that is, black in its deepeft colour, authors have been led to fuppofe this word flood for black; but as there are not, nor ever were any black fapphires, it is certain from this as Well as many other instances, that the ancients ufed this word {j.%ha.(, for a deep blue, and in that fenfe finmnus color does fignify the fame thing. It being the aerinus color of the an- tients, or what we call sky-colour, or a fine blue ; fuch as the colour of the fineft fapphires.
FISANELLE, in zoology, a name given by the Venetians to a water fowl of the colymbus kind, called by authors the colym- bus major, or great diver. Its general weight is about a pound, its beak is two fingers breadth long, and all its feathers are downy, foft, and very thick fet together; its head and neck are brown, and its back is blackifh ; its fides and belly brown, and its breaff. of a filver white. It has no tail, and its wing feathers are black and white. Its feet are not webb'd, but the toes are all widened by membranes. It is very common in the markets of Italy. Ray's Ornith. p. 256.
F1SCHERLIN, in zoology, a name given by many of the nor- thern nations to a fmall fpecies of the larus or gull, called by Mr. Ray, larus pifcator ; and in Englifh, the lefler fea fwal- low. It is fmaller than the common black-bird. Its wings are long and grey, its feet ihort and yellow, its breaft and belly are white, the crown of its head black, and its back grey. It is very common on the German coafts, and feeds on fmall iifh. Ray's Ornithology, p. 269.
FISGUM, a name ufed by fome, for the fifh commonly called mifgum. JVilloughby's Hift. pifc. p. 129.
FISHES, (Cycl.) in natural hiftory, make one of the diftincl clafTes of animals, the characters of which are, that they have either a naked or fcaly body, that they have no feet, and always have fins, Linnai, Syft. Nat. p. 33. It is fa id, that all fifli regulate their times of eating and abfti-
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nence, by the temperature of the air, and the quarter frorH whence the wind blows. Hence if thofe who are lovers of angling, would take the pains to keep a lew ihiall fifh i a glaffes, they might at any time ealily foretel, Irom their tak- ing or refufing food, what Iport is to be expected, and thus fave themfelves many a weary ftep. Phil. Tranf. N° 482 Sea 15.
It is reported by many people, who have written accounts of China, that there are certain fiih of a faffron colour in the feas thereabout, which in the fpnng caff. ofF their fcales and get feathers and wings, and fly to the woods, where they build their nefts, and live all fu miner, but in winter return to their watery habitation with their young ones, and become fifties again. This is too abfurd to be beiieved, tho* very fe- rioufly related by grave authors. If the famous gold fifh be meant by it, as fome fay, the whole is proved to be fabulous, by thefe fifh being often found with fpawn or roes in them. Redi's Efperienze.
The northern countries abound in large and delicate fifh even to the extremeft degrees of cold. Schejfcr in his hiftory of Lapland, gives us a wonderful account of the abundance, and large fize of the fifh there.
The falmons grow to a larger fize than we ever fee them of, and are caught in fuch abundance, that the natives who pickle them, fome times export not lefs than thirteen thou land tuns in a year : pikes are very common, and grow to the length of fix or feven foot, and a proportionable tbicknefs. The carp grow to an ell long and often coniiderably more j and trout, barbie, gudgeons and pcarch grow to a propor- tionable fize and fatnefs. The laft of thefe fifh have one very peculiar among them. They foak the skins in water, and then {tripping off the fcales, they add frefh water and boil the skins down till wholly diilblved, of this they make a very pure and beautiful fort of glue, which is not inferior in ftrength to our coarfe and flunking kind. Scheffer's Hift. Lapland. The coming of certain kinds of fifh in flioals and infinite mul- titudes, to certain coafts at certain times of the year, is a thing of great advantage to mankind, as it gives opportunities of taking them with great safe, and in vaft quantities ; but the reafon of thefe periodical returns of the feveral kinds, does notfeem much underftood, tbo' a little obfervation would pro- bably clear it up. There is a fmall in feci: common in man/ feas, but peculiary plentiful on the coafts of Normandy in the months of June, July and Auguft. This is well defcribtd by Rondeletius, under the name of the fea caterpillar ; and at this time of the year it is fo frequent in the place before men- tioned, that the whole furface of the water is covered with it as with a fcum. This is the feafon of the year when the her- rings come alfo In fuch prodigious flioals to thofe coafts. The fifhermen complain much of thefe nafty vermin which dis- turb their fiftieries, but they do not confider that it is to thefe alone, that their fisheries are owing; for it is evident, that the herrings feed on thefe creatures greedily, by the vaft quan- tity found in all their ffomachs ; and it is highly probable, nay fcarce to be doubted, that the reafon of thofe fifh coming up in fuch numbers is to feed on them ; probably if obfervation was made, the fame would be found to be the cafe in all the other places where the herrings come in the fame ibrt of plen- ty. The mackrel come down in the fame numbers regularly at certain times of the year, and for the fame fort of reafon. This fifh is an herb cater, and is particularly fond of that fea- plant called by naturalifts, the narrow leaved purple palmated fea wrack ; this grows in great abundance on the coafts of England, and many other places, and is in its greateft perfec- tion in the beginning of the fummer, tho' fometimes later than others according to the feverity or mildnefs of the winter. The whole occafion of thefe fifh coming in fuch quantities is to feed on this plant; and thofe who would attend to its grow- ing up, would know when to expccl the mackrel better than thofe who liften for thunder for the fignal of them. The tunnys come at certain feafons to the coafts of Provence and Languedoc, in the fame flioals that herrings and mackrel do to other places. This feems to be on another occafion, The fifh called by the French the emperor, and by the fame confound- ed with the fword-fifh, is the great enemy of thefe fifli, and in fummer is fo plentyful in thole feas, that they find no way of faving themfelves, but by flying to the fhallow waters, where the other cannot eafily follow them, hence they frequent the fhores. The pilchards caught upon the coafts of Bretany, and making a confiderable article of commerce for that province, are yet a ftronger proof of the natural means that bring fijh in fhoals to certain places, than any other. Thefe fifli evidently come for food, and that not natural to the place, but prepared for them by the inhabitants.
The people of Bretany purchafe from Norway, the offal and entrails of all the large fijh caught in the Northern feas; this is of late years become a regular and confiderable article of trade; they cut thefe to pieces, and ftrewthem in vaft quan- tities over the whole furface of the. fea along their coafts, at times when the winds do not fitfo as to blow it off. This always brings together the pilchards in as vaft flioals as the herrings or mackrel come in other places; and the fifher- men
