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Shoshong—Shoveler
which is deeply mystical and imaginative, has for its central idea the dangers of bigotry and superstition, and the necessity of intuitive religion to progress and culture. It is a work full of opulent colour and crowded life, no less than of philosophy and spiritual beauty. Shorthouse’s work was always marked by high earnestness of purpose, a luxuriant style and a genuinely spiritual quality. He lacked dramatic faculty and the workmanlike conduct of narrative, but he had almost every other quality of the born novelist. He died at Edgbaston on the 4th of March 1903.
See The Life, Letters and Literary Remains of J. Henry Shorthouse, edited by his wife (2 vols., 1905).
Shoshong, a town in the British protectorate of Bechuanaland, formerly the chief settlement of the eastern Bamangwato. It is about 200 m. N.N.E. of Mafeking and 30 m. N. of Shoshong Road Station on the Cape Town–Bulawayo railway. The town is situated 3000 ft. above the sea in the valley of the Shoshong, an intermittent tributary of the Limpopo. The site was originally chosen as the headquarters of the Bamangwato as being easily defensible against the Matabele. At the time of the declaration of a British protectorate in 1885 Shoshong had 20,000 to 30,000 inhabitants, including about twenty Europeans. Being the meeting place of trade routes from south and north it was of considerable importance to early explorers and traders in South-Central Africa, and a mission station of the London Missionary Society (preceded for many years by a station of the Hermannsburg Lutheran Missionary Society) was founded here in 1862. Owing, however, to the scarcity of water at Shoshong, Khama, the chief of the Bamangwato, and most of his followers removed about 1890 to Palapye—50 m. N.E. of Shoshong—and later to Serowe to the north-west of Palapye. Like Shoshong, these places are built in valleys of tributaries of the Limpopo. Shoshong was not entirely deserted and has a population of about 800 (see Bechuanaland).
Shotts, a mining and manufacturing parish of Lanarkshire, Scotland. It comprises eight villages, parts of two others, and the town of Cleland (including Omoa) and is served by the North British and Caledonian railways. Pop. (1891) 11,957; (1901) 15,562. The parish contains large ironworks, tile, fire-clay and brick-works, and quarries, and includes the Lanark district asylum and a fever hospital. The curious name of Omoa is supposed to have been given to his property by some soldier or sailor who had settled here after the wars in Honduras, of which Omoa is a seaport. Matthew Baillie (1761–1823), famous for his researches in morbid anatomy, and Janet Hamilton (1795–1873), the poetess, were born in the parish of Shotts.
Shoulder (in O.E. sculder, cognate with Ger. Schulter, Dutch schouder, Swed. skuldra, &c; the root is unknown), the name of that part of the body of man and animals where the upper arm or fore-leg articulates with the collar bone and shoulder-blade (see Joints).
Shovel, Sir Cloudesley [or Clowdisley Shovell as he seems to have spelt the name himself] (c. 1650–1707), English admiral, was baptised at Cockthorpe in Norfolk on the 25th of November 1650, and went to sea under the care of his kinsman Sir Christopher Mynns. He set himself to study navigation, and, owing to his able seamanship and brave and open-hearted disposition, became a general favourite and obtained quick promotion. In 1674 he served as lieutenant under Sir John Narborough in the Mediterranean, where he burned four men-of-war under the castles and walls of Tripoli, belonging to the pirates of that place. He was present as captain of the “Edgar” (70) at the first fight at Bantry Bay, and shortly afterwards was knighted. In 1690 he convoyed William III. across St George’s Channel to Ireland; the same year he was made rear-admiral of the blue, and was present at the battle of Beachy Head on 10th July. In 1692 he was appointed rear-admiral of the red, and joined Admiral Russell, under whom he greatly distinguished himself at La Hogue, by being the first to break through the enemy’s line. Not long after, when Admiral Russell was superseded, Shovel was put in joint command of the fleet with Admiral Killigrew and Sir Ralph Delaval. In 1702 he brought home the spoils of the French and Spanish fleets from Vigo, after their capture by Sir George Rooke, and in 1704 he served under Sir George Rooke in the Mediterranean and cooperated in the taking of Gibraltar. In January 1704 he was named rear-admiral of England, and shortly afterwards commander-in-chief of the British fleets. He co-operated with the earl of Peterborough in the capture of Barcelona in 1705, and commanded the naval part of the unsuccessful attempt on Toulon in October 1707. When returning with the fleet to England his ship, the “Association,” at eight o’clock at night on the 22nd of October, struck on the rocks near Scilly, and was seen by those on board the “St George” to go down in three or four minutes’ time, not a soul being saved of 800 men that were on board. The body of Sir Cloudesley Shovel was cast ashore next day, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. It is said that he was alive when he reached the shore at Porthellick Cove, but was murdered by a woman for the sake of his rings.
See Life and Glorious Actions of Sir Cloudesley Shovel (1707); Burnet’s Own Times; various discussions in Notes and Queries, 5th series, vols. x. and xi.; and T. H. Cooke, Shipwreck of Sir Cloudesley Shovel (1883).
Shovel (O.E. scofl, from root of scufan, to shove, push, cf. Ger. Schaufel, also Schüppe, scoop), an implement or tool, consisting of a broad flat blade with edges or sides turned up fixed to a wooden handle terminating in a bow like a spade. It is used for lifting or removing such loose substances as coal, gravel and the like.
Shoveler, formerly spelt Shoverlar, and more anciently Shovelard, a word by which used to be meant the bird now almost invariably called Spoonbill (q.v.), but in the latter half of the 16th century transferred to one hitherto generally, and in these days locally, known as the Spoon-billed Duck—the Anas clypeata of Linnaeus and Rhynchaspis or Spatula clypeata of modern writers. All these names refer to the shape of the bird’s bill, which, combined with the remarkably long lamellae that beset both maxilla and mandible, has been thought sufficient to remove the species from the Linnaean genus Anas. Except for the extraordinary formation of this feature, which carries with it a clumsy look, the male Shoveler would pass for one of the most beautiful of this generally beautiful group of birds. As it is, for bright and variegated colouring, there are few of his kindred to whom he is inferior. His golden eye, his dark green head, surmounting a breast of pure white and succeeded by underparts and flanks of rich bay, are conspicuous; while his deep brown back, white scapulas, lesser wing-coverts (often miscalled shoulders) of a glaucous blue, and glossy green speculum bordered with white present a wonderful contrast of the richest tints, heightened again by his bright orange feet. On the other hand, the female, excepting the blue wing-coverts she has in common with her mate, is habited very like the ordinary Wild-Duck, A. boscas. The Shoveler is not an abundant species, and in Great Britain its distribution is local; but its numbers have remarkably increased since the passing of the Wild-Fowl Protection Act in 1876, so that in certain districts it has regained its old position as an indigenous member of the Fauna. It has not ordinarily a very high northern range, but inhabits the greater part of Europe, Asia and America, passing southwards, like most of the Anatidae towards winter, constantly reaching India, Ceylon, Abyssinia, the Antilles and Central America, while it is known to have occurred at that season in Colombia, and, according to Gould, in Australia. Generally resembling in its habits the other freshwater ducks, the Shoveler has one peculiarity that has been rarely, if ever, mentioned, and one that is perhaps correlated with the structure of its bill. It seems to be especially given to feeding on the surface of the water immediately above the spot where diving ducks (Fuligulinae) are employing themselves beneath. On such occasions a pair of Shovelers may be watched, almost for the hour together, swimming in a circle, about a yard in diameter, their heads turned inwards towards its centre, their bills immersed vertically in the water, and engaged in sifting, by means of the long lamellae before mentioned, the floating matters that are disturbed by
