MOO
bailiffs : Every Moor has the like office with our bailiff of the hundred. King's Defcript. of the llle of Man. MooR-Coci, an Englifh name for the red-game, or our lago- pus, more commonly called the gor-cock. It is a very deli- cate bird, larger than a partridge, and common on the hills in Derbylhire and Yorkshire. Aa/s Ornithol. p. 12b'. bee the article GoR-Cod- MoORS-Head, in the manege. See the article MoRE'j-ffoii MooR-i/t-», Gallinula, in zoology, the name of a genus of water-birds ; the characters of which are thefe : The head is fmall, the body compreffed, the beak fhort and moderately crooked, the wings fmall and hollowed like thofe of the com- mon cock and hen kind, the tail very ihort, the legs long, and the toes remarkably fo.
The common Moor-hen, called Gallinula Chlorcpus by authors, is a very well known bird, fomewhat like the coot in lhape, but fmaller, and very much flatted in the body. Its feetarc greenith, and its brcatt a lead-coloured blue ; its belly grevifh. it is common about our rivers, and is a very well tailed bird. Ray's Ornithol. p. 233. MoOR-Laud, or NLoORY-Lanrt, in agriculture, is a black, light and foft earth, very loofe, and without any admixture of (tones ; and with very little clay, or land. The uppermoft ftratum of the fen-lands is ufually of this earth, and it ufually constitutes a model ately thick or deep bed. Intermixed with water it cannot ealily be worked up into a pafte ; and when with labour worked up into fome- what of a firm mafs, its furface appears ipongy and porous ; and as foon as dry, it ealuy moulders away to powder. It is ufually foft to the touch, unlets it be worked very clofe- ly between the fingers, then it fhews a mixture of a fmall quantity of land, Doth to the touch and to the eye. It feems indeed to conlitt almoft entirely of pure vegetable matter, and this lying in fuch plenty on the furface of the fen-lands, is the caule of tneir being fo very fertile. The great difadvantage of the places which have this foil, is their being liable to be glutted with wet ; and to remedy the inconveniencies ariiing rrom thence, the farmers who rent thefe lands have a cultom of burning the foil at proper fea- fons. It burns very freely and ealily, the furface readily catch- ing flame, and a lubltance fomewhat bituminous, ufually con - tamed among the foil, helps the burning. Moreton's Nortbamp.
P-3 6 - MooR-Stmie, the name of a very remarkable (lone found in Cornwall, and fome other parts of England, and ufed in the coarfer works of die prefent builders.
This is'truly a white granite, and is a very valuable ftone. It is a very coarfe and rude, but beautiful congeries of vari- oully conitructed and differently figured particles, not diffufed among, or running into one another, but each pure and diftinct, tho' firmly cohering with whatever it comes in con- tact with. Its colours are principally black and white ; the white are of * fort of marbly texture, and opake, formed into large congeries, and emulating a fort of tabulated ltruclure ; among thefe there are many of a pure cryftalline fplendor and tranfparence, and among thefe are lodged in different direc- tions many fmall flaky manes of pure talcs of feveral colours; fome are wholly pellucid, others of an opake white, others of the colour of brown cryftal, and a vaft number perfectly black. Bill's Hill, of Foil', p. 408.
It is found in immenfe ftrata in tome parts of Ireland, but is difregarded there.
It is found with us in Devonshire, Cornwall, and fome other counties ; and brought thence in vaft quantities to London. It never forms any whole ftrata there, but is found on the furface of the earth in immenfe and unmanageable manes ; and to feparate thefe into portable ones, they dig "a hole with a wedge in fome part of them, and furrounding it with a ridge of clay they fill it up with water; this by degrees foaks in, and finding its way into the imperceptible cracks fo far loofens the cohefions of the particles there, that the day after they drive a larger wedge into the hole, and the ftone breaks into two or more pieces. It is ufed in London for the fteps of public buildings ; and on other occafions, where great ftrcngtli and hardnefs are required. The people of Cornwall who have this ftone in great plenty, tile it in their tin-works, and particularly in their tin-kiln, on the good effect of which a great deal depends. This kiln is four-fquare, and at its top is placed a large block of Moor- Jtone; the ufiial fize of this block is fix foot in length and , four in breadth ; in the middle of this block there is made a hole of about fix inches in diameter. This ftone ferves as a head to cover another like ftone placed beneath it; but this under one is not fo long as the upper by fix inches. The reafon of this is, that it muft not reach the inncrmott or back part of the wall, which is the open place thro' which the flame afcends Iron, another place below that, where a very
Sir" 1 ?^^^ and *="=« an- other little hole alfo on the outfide. The forepart is like a common oven, and has fuch a fort of chimney. T he tin ore is roafted in this kiln, to burn away themundick, °' S r tr: The ore is brought in powder, and poured out ,n heaps on the furface of the top-done, a man fluids there and thrufts it down through the hole in this ftone into
MOO
the kiln, that is, to the furface of the under-ftone; a nerfoft who (lands below ipreads this as it tails with an iron rake and gives notice to the perfon above when there is enough down, that is when the iurface of the lower ftone is covered three or four inches thick. When this is done, the hole at the top is covered with green turfs, that the flame may reverberate the wronger; and me heat that the Moor- lion acquires helps to roaft the ore; while the flame that comes up from the ore is blue, there yet remains mundic among it ; but when this is burnt ofl, the flame is yellow. Philof. Tranf. N°. 69. The miners in fome parts of Cornwall ufe the name Moor- Jlone for a fort of coarfe free-ftone, which lies very olten over the tin ore ; this is of a greyifh colour, and is Ibmewhat loiter than that ulually employed in building.
MoOR-Titling, a commong Englifh name tor the cenanthe, more frequently called the ftone-chatter. bee the ankle Stone-chatter.
MOORING (Cycl.)— Mooring a fair Birth at Sea, is Moor- trig in a place tree from any annoyance.
Mooring a Provijo, at fea, is to have an anchor out, and a hawfer a-fhore ; then the (hip is moored with her head a- fhore. _ And two cables is the ieaft, and four the belltewtr by. Seethe article Anchor.
Moori kg IVater-Jhot, is to moor neither alongffi nor athwart the tide, but quartering between both.
MOOSE-Dot-. The firft mention we find of this remarkable animal, is in a trad of Mr. Toflelyn's, entitled New-England Rarities. T hat author fays, it is a very fine creature, grow- ing to twelve foot high ; the horns are extremely beautiful with broad palms, fome of thofe full grown being two fa- thom from the tip of one horn to the tip of the other. The fame author, in another work, entitled,! wo Voyages to New- England, calls this creature a monlier of fup'crnuity ; and fays, that when full grown it is many times larger than an ox. "What NcaKays ot this animal feems copied from Joflelyn" But the belt account we have of it, is from Mr. Pain Dudley - this gentleman fays, that they are of two kinds : The com- mon light-grey Moofe-tUtr; called by the Indians Wtmlpiale and the larger blacK Mooje. The grey Mooj. is the fame animal which Mr. Clayton, in his account of the Virginian quadrupeds, publiflied 111 the Philofophical Tranfactian'Sj- calls the elk : And this is the creature, defcribed in the Anatomi- cal Dil'coveries of the Paris Academy, under the name of the flag of Canada. Horns of this creature have been few from Virginia, and called elks horns : They are wholly the fame with thofe of our red-deer, except in lize; weighing about twelve pounds, and meafuring from the burr to the tip about fix foot long. Phil. Tranf. N°. 444. p. 3S6. Mr. Dudley fays, that the grey Moofe is like the Englifh deer ; and that thefe creatures herd together thirty or more in a company. The black or large Moofe has been taken, he fays, meafuring fourteen fpans in height from the withers which, allowing nine inches to the ipan, is ten foot and a half.
The flag or male of this kind has a palmed horn, not like that of our common or tallow deer, but the palm is much longer and more like to that of the German elk ; but it dif- fers from that in having a branched brow antler between the burr and the palm, which the German elk hath nut. The large horns found foffile in Ireland, have, from their vaft dimenfions, been fuppofed to have originally belonged to the black Moofe-deer ; but they, as likewilc moll other of the large horns found in this part of the world, appear to be the horns of the Geiman elk, having no brow-antlers. Mr. Ray mentions, in his Synopbs of animals, a pair of ex- tremely large foffile horns, which he faw in a mulkum in Suf- fex ; but he mentions no brow-antlers in thefe, and therefore probably they, as well as molt others preferred in mufseums, were the horns of the German elk.
It is not agreed by authors what number of young the Moofe brings forth at a time ; Mr. Dudley fays but two ; but Joflelyn, and from him Neal, fay three; and thefe au- thors add, that they do not go fo long with young as our does, by two months.
There is, befide the Moofe, another animal of the deer-kind, very common in Virginia, and other of the Northern pro- vinces of America. This creature has round horns, not fpreading out as in the flag or red-deer, but meeting nearer together at the tips, and bending forwards over the creature's head ; and the brow-antlers are not crooked and Handing for- ward, but ftrait and upright. The fkin of this deer is of a fandy colour with fome black hairs, and is fpotted all over while young with white fpots as fome of our falbw deer are, and it is about the bignefs of our fallow deer when full grown. The Dama Virginiana of Mr. Ray was different from this, if the defcription be exact, and the horns of the
palmated kind. This Dama of Mr. Ray feems to be what " JTelyii, in his Voyages, calls the Mauroufe ; but his defcrip-
h-
tion is too fhort to form any regular judgment from, he only fays that the Mauroufe is like the Mooje, but that its horn's are (mail, and the creature about the biirnefs of a ftae Phil Tranf. N°. 444- P- 388. "'
Joflelyn mentions alfo the buck, the (lag, and the rain-deer ; but it is very much to be doubted whether they are the fame T animals
