Page:EB1911 - Volume 21.djvu/641

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614
PILOT-FISH—PIMENTO
  

states. If the waters are the boundary between two states a duly licensed pilot of either state may be employed, but no discrimination can be made in the rates of pilotage between vessels of different states. In the German Empire the pilotage laws are very complicated. In the majority of the maritime states each one has its own regulations and laws. In Prussia there are government pilots who enter the service as apprentices, and are placed under a department of state. In France the general organization of pilots is regulated by the Statute on Pilots of the 12th of December 1806, and the pilotage regulations for each port are made by the minister of marine at the request of his local representative and the Chamber of Commerce. French pilots are exempt from military service.

See Abbott, Shipping (London, 1901); Maude and Pollock, Shipping (London, 1881); Marsden, Collisions at Sea (London, 1910); Select Pleas of the Admiralty (Selden Society, London, 1892 and 1897); Temperley, Merchant Shipping Acts (1907); Twiss, Black Book of Admiralty (London, 1871).  (G. G. P.*; J. W. D.) 


PILOT-FISH (Naucrates ductor), a pelagic fish of the family of horse-mackerels or Carangidae, well known to sailors from its peculiar habit of keeping company with ships and large fishes, especially sharks. It occurs in all tropical and sub-tropical seas, and is common in the Mediterranean, but becomes scarcer in higher latitudes. In summer pilots will accompany ships as far north as the south coast of England into port.

Pilot-fish.
Pilot-fish.

Pilot-fish.

This habit was known to the ancients, who describe the Pompilus as a fish which points out the way to dubious or embarrassed sailors, and by its sudden disappearance indicates to them the vicinity of land; the ancient seamen of the Mediterranean regarded it, therefore, as a sacred fish. That the pilot accompanies sharks is an observation which first appears in works of travel of the 17th century, the writers asserting that it is of great use to its big companion in conducting it and showing it the way to its food. It is, however, extremely doubtful whether the pilot’s connexion with a shark serves a more special purpose than its temporary attachment to a ship. It accompanies both on account of the supply of food which it derives from them. The pilot, therefore, stands to both in the relation of a so-called “commensal,” like the Echeneis or sucking-fish. All observers, however, agree that neither the pilot nor the sucker is ever attacked by the shark. The pilot attains to a length of about 12 in. In the shape of its body it resembles a mackerel, but is rather shorter, especially in the head, and covered with small scales. A sharp keel runs along the middle of each side of the tail. The first dorsal in consists of a few short spines not connected by a membrane; the second dorsal and the anal are composed of numerous rays. The teeth, which occupy the jaws, vomer and palatine bones, are all small, in villiform bands. The coloration of the pilot renders it conspicuous at a distance; on a bluish ground-colour from five to seven dark-blue or violet cross-bands traverse the body from the back to the belly. The pilot-fish spawns in the open sea, and its fry is constantly caught in the tow-net. But young pilot-fish differ considerably from the adult, having the spines of the first dorsal connected by a membrane, and some bones of the head armed with projecting spines. These little fishes were therefore long considered to be a distinct genus, Nauclerus.


PILOTY, KARL VON (1826–1886), German painter, was born at Munich, on the 1st of October 1826. His father, Ferdinand Piloty (d. 1844), enjoyed a great reputation as a lithographer. In 1840 he was admitted as a student of the Munich Academy, under the artists Schorn and Schnorr. After a journey to Belgium, France and England, he commenced work as a painter of genre pictures, and in 1853 produced a work, Die Amme (“The Wet Nurse”), which, on account of its originality of style, caused a considerable sensation in Germany at the time. But he soon forsook this branch of painting in favour of historical subjects, and produced in 1854 for King Maximilian II. “The Adhesion of Maximilian I. to the Catholic League in 1609.” It was succeeded by “Seni at the Dead Body of Wallenstein” (1855), which gained for the young painter the membership of the Munich Academy, where he succeeded Schorn (his brother-in-law) as professor. Among other well-known works by Piloty are the “Battle of the White Mountain near Prague,” “Nero Dancing upon the Ruins of Rome” (1861), “Godfrey of Bouillon on a Pilgrimage to the Holy Land” (1861), “Galileo in Prison” (1864), and “The Death of Alexander the Great” (unfinished), his last great work. He also executed a number of mural paintings for the royal palace in Munich. For Baron von Schach he painted the justly celebrated “Discovery of America.” In 1874 he was appointed keeper of the Munich Academy, being afterwards ennobled by the king of Bavaria. Piloty was the foremost representative of the realistic school in Germany. He was a most successful teacher, and among his more famous pupils may be mentioned Makart, Lenbach, Defregger, Max and Grutzner. He died at Munich on the 21st of July 1886.


PILSEN (Czech, Plzeň), a town of Bohemia, Austria, 68 m. W.S.W. of Prague by rail. Pop. (1900), 68,292, of which 94% are Czech. It is the second town of Bohemia, and lies at the confluence of the Radbusa and the Mies. It consists of the town proper, which is regularly built and surrounded with promenades on the site of the old ramparts, and of three suburbs. The most prominent buildings are the Gothic church of St Bartholomew, said to date from 1292, whose tower (325 ft.) is the highest in Bohemia, and the fine Renaissance town hall dating from the 16th century. The staple article of manufacture and commerce is beer, which is exported to all parts of the world. Other industrial products are machinery, enamelled tinware, leather, alum, paper, earthenware, stoves and spirits, while a tolerably brisk trade is carried on in wool, feathers, cattle and horses. In the neighbourhood are several coal-pits, iron-works and glass-Works, as well as large deposits of kaolin.

Pilsen first appears in history in 976, as the scene of a battle in the war between Prince Boleslaus and the emperor Otto II., and it became a town in 1272. During the Hussite wars it was the centre of Catholic resistance to the Hussites; it was three times unsuccessfully besieged by Prokop the Great, and it took part in the league of the Romanist lords against King George of Podebrad. During the Thirty Years' War the town was taken by Mansfield in 1618 and not recaptured by the Imperialists till 1621. Wallenstein made it his winter-quarters in 1633, and it was in the great hall of the Rathaus that his generals took the oath of fidelity to him (January 1634). The town was unsuccessfully besieged by the Swedes in 1637 and 1648. The first Bohemian printing press was established here in 1468.


PIMA, a tribe and stock of North American Indians. Their range was southern Arizona and northern Mexico. The ruined Pima village, known to the Spanish as Casa Grande on the south bank of the Gila, is an example of their early civilization and skill in building. Driven out of their homes by neighbouring tribes, they lived a more or less nomadic life. They were always good farmers, showing much skill in irrigation. At first submitting to the Spaniards, they revolted in 1751, destroying all the missions. The war lasted two years, but since then the Pima Indians have been friendly with the settlers. As a race they are brave, honest and hard working. They number some 5000 on two reservations in Arizona. The Piman stock includes such tribes as the Papago, Huichol, Opata, Tarumari, and numbers upwards of a hundred thousand.


PIMENTO, also called Allspice (from a supposed combination of various flavours) and Jamaica Pepper, the dried immature fruit of Eugenia pimenta or Pimento officinalis, an evergreen tree about 30 ft. high, belonging to the natural order Myrtaceae. It is indigenous in the West India Islands, growing on limestone hills near the sea, and is especially grown in Jamaica. The spice derives its name from the Portuguese pimenta, Spanish pimienta, pepper, which was given to it from its resemblance to