[Illustration]
This dog is of a large size, being considerably superior, in point of
strength, to the Newfoundland dog. He was originally produced by a cross
between the Newfoundland and the Siberian, and has now assumed the
characteristics of a distinct race: his head is large, with moderately
long ears, and his tail bent over his back, like that of most of the
boreal varieties; his hair is very long and curled, being from seven to
nine inches in length; and in colour he varies from white with black
patches, to pure white, and sometimes is entirely black. He has an
expressive and intelligent countenance, and possesses all those
qualities for which the Newfoundland dog is famous. In Russia this
animal is employed for watching property, which he defends with all the
assiduity of a mastiff or Newfoundland dog. He is sometimes also used in
hunting the wolf and wild boar, for which he is admirably adapted, from
his great strength, and from possessing considerable swiftness. His feet
are semi-webbed, and he swims with great ease, and is accordingly often
used in shooting aquatic birds, which he fetches out of the water when
killed.
The dogs of Russia are not so quarrelsome amongst themselves as the
British, probably owing to their never being encouraged to fight: and I
am informed by a gentleman who resided twelve years in that country,
that he never even heard of a dogfight there.—_Brown._
RUST, _s._ The red incrustation of iron; the tarnished or corroded
surface of any metal.
RUST, _v._ To gather rust; to have the surface tarnished or
corroded.
Three ounces of black lead, half a pound of hog’s lard, one quarter of
an ounce of camphor, boiled upon a slow fire; the gun-barrels to be
rubbed with this, and, after three days, wiped off with a linen cloth:
twice in a winter will keep off the rust, which the salt-water is
otherwise sure to be continually bringing out from the iron.
* * * * *
To protect guns from rust in the humid climate I have been latterly
accustomed to, I found nothing answer well but strong mercurial
ointment. On the Western coast, oil, no matter how good in quality, is
useless, but for cleaning. Those who are acquainted with the localities
of that country know that turf is of trifling value. No limit is
consequently placed upon its consumption; it is calculated only by the
stack or the boat-full, and hence more fuel was wasted in my lodge, than
would supply three moderate houses. Yet so penetrating is the damp from
the ocean breeze, that the house-arms rusted above the fire-places, and
the pistols I kept upon my table would spot if not frequently examined,
and dry-rubbed with a flannel cloth.—_Hawker_—_Wild Sports._
RUT, _s._ Copulation of deer; the track of a cart-wheel.
RYE, _s._ A coarse kind of bread corn.
RYEGRASS, _s._ A kind of strong grass.
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SACCADE, _s. obs._ A violent check the rider gives his horse by
drawing both the reins suddenly.
SACK, _s._ A bag, a pouch, commonly a large bag; the measure of
three bushels; a kind of sweet wine now brought chiefly from the
Canaries.
SADDLE, _s._ The seat which is put upon the horse for the
accommodation of the rider.
SADDLE, _v._ To cover with a saddle; to fix the saddle on.
SADDLEBACKED, _a._ Horses saddlebacked have their backs low, and a
raised head and neck.
SADDLEGALL, _s._ An injury on the horse’s back, arising from a
defective or ill-fitted saddle.
Saddle or harness galls may be considered as bruises, and when it can be
done should be poulticed, until the swelling has been dispersed or has
suppurated. If the matter has not sufficient vent, the opening may be
enlarged or the sinus laid open, if there is any. It must then be
dressed with digestive ointment, and when it has been reduced to the
state of a clear open sore, the cure may be finished by the astringent
paste.—_White._
SADDLER, _s._ One whose trade is to make saddles.
SAFFRON, _a._ Yellow, having the colour of saffron.
SAGACIOUS, _a._ Quick of scent; quick of thought; acute.
SAGITTAL, _a._ Belonging to an arrow.
SAKERET, _s._ The male of a sakerhawk.
SALINE, _a._ Consisting of salt.
SALIVA, _s._ Every thing that is spit up; but it more strictly
signifies that juice which is separated by the glands called
salival.
SALIVATE, _v._ To purge by the salival glands.
Dogs, when fully salivated, lose their teeth very early, and their
breath continues offensive through life. The whole of the feline tribe
are also easily affected by mercury. I was requested to inspect the very
large lion that so long graced Pidcock’s menagerie. It may be remembered
by many, that this noble animal’s tongue constantly hung without his
mouth; which arose from his having been injudiciously salivated, many
years before, by a mercurial preparation applied by the keeper for the
cure of mange. The submuriate of mercury (calomel) is, likewise, very
irregular in its action on dogs; I have seen eight grains fail to open
the bowels of a small one, while, on the contrary, I have been called to
a pointer fatally poisoned by ten grains. It forms however, a useful
auxiliary to purgatives, in doses of three or four grains; and as it not
unfrequently acts on the stomach, so it may be used with advantage as an
emetic in some cases, particularly in conjunction with tartarised
antimony (tartar emetic). When, therefore, a purgative is brought up
again, in which calomel was a component part, it may be suspected to
arise from this source, and, if it is necessary to repeat the purge, the
mercurial should be omitted.—_Blaine._
SALMON, _s._ The king of freshwater fish.
[Illustration: THE SALMON.]
At the latter end of the year, and some in November, salmon begin to
press up the rivers as far as they can reach, in order to spawn; when
that period approaches, and they have accommodated themselves with a fit
place, nature supplies the male with a bony excrescence, growing out of
the end of the lower jaw, to the length of half an inch or more: this,
it is said, aids him in the removal of the gravel, but both male and
female assist in forming a proper receptacle for the spawn, in the sand
or gravel, about eighteen inches deep. In this the ova and milt are
deposited, and carefully covered by the parent fish, who afterwards
hasten to cleanse and recover themselves (the male loses the gristle at
the jaw); for, after spawning, they become very poor and lean, and then
are called kipper. At their first entrance into the fresh water, salmon
are observed to have abundance of insects adhering to them, especially
above the gills: these animals denote the fish to be in high season, and
die and drop off soon after the salmon’s leaving the sea.
The spawn lies buried until spring, and, without any other care, is
nourished and brought to perfection, if not disturbed by violent floods,
or by depredations from other fish, of which the eel, roach, dace, and
grayling, are dangerous neighbours. About the latter end of March, the
spawn begins to exclude the young, which gradually increase to four or
five inches in length, and are then termed smelts, or smouts; about the
beginning of May the river seems to be alive, and there is no framing an
idea of the numbers without seeing them. A seasonable flood, however,
hurries them to the sea, very few being left in the river. About the
middle of June the earliest fry commence their return from the sea into
the river (at that period from twelve to sixteen inches long), and
progressively augment in number and size, until about the end of July,
which is, at Berwick, the height of the grilse time (the name there
given to the fish of that age). Early in August they lessen in number,
but advance in bigness, some being from six to as high as nine pounds’
weight. This increase appears surprisingly quick; yet a gentleman of
Warrington has given an instance of still more rapid growth: a kipper
salmon, weighing seven pounds three quarters, taken on the 7th of
February, was marked with scissors on the back fin and tail, and turned
into the river; he was again taken on the 17th of the following March,
and then weighed seventeen pounds and a half. In this case the remark of
Walton seems to have been more than verified, “that the samlet becomes a
salmon in as short a time as a gosling becomes a goose.”
* * * * *
The salmon in Lough Erne increase in size wonderfully, and young ones,
which were caught and marked when going into the lake, have been caught
on their return, and found so large, that they must have increased at
the rate of one pound per week.
* * * * *
The migratory habits of the salmon, and the instinct with which it
periodically revisits its native river, are curious circumstances in the
natural history of this fish. As the swallow returns annually to its
nest, as certainly the salmon repairs to the same spot in which to
deposit its ova. Many interesting experiments have established this
fact. M. De Lande fastened a copper ring round a salmon’s tail, and
found that for three successive seasons it returned to the same place.
Dr. Bloch states, that gold and silver rings have been attached by
eastern princes to salmon, to prove that a communication existed between
the Persian Gulf and the Caspian and Northern Seas, and that the
experiment succeeded. Shaw, in his Zoology, mentions that a salmon of
seven pounds and three quarters was marked with scissors on the back fin
and tail, and turned out on the 7th of February, and that it was retaken
in March of the succeeding year, and found to have increased to the
amazing size of seventeen pounds and a half. This statement, by the by,
is at variance with the theory of Dr. Bloch, who estimates the weight of
a five or six year old salmon at but ten or twelve pounds.
That the salmon should lose condition rapidly on quitting the sea for
the fresh water, may be inferred from a fact agreed upon by naturalists,
that during the period of spawning the fish neglects feeding. In this
peculiar habit the salmon is not, however, singular; animals of the
Phocæ tribe, in breeding-time, exercise a similar abstinence. On opening
a salmon, at any season, no food will be discovered, and the contents of
the stomach will be confined to a small quantity of yellowish fluid and
tape-worms, which are generated there. Sir Humphry Davy believes that
occasionally food may be found. I have seen thousands opened preparatory
to being salted, and I never observed anything but this fluid and
tape-worms. Another circumstance may be stated as a curious proof of
health, as well as of the period of time the salmon has been resident in
a river. When the fish leaves the sea, and of course is in its best
condition, insects (the Lernæ Salmoneæ of Linnæus) will be perceived
firmly adhering to the skin. Immediately on entering the fresh water,
these insects begin to detach themselves from the salmon, and after a
short time they gradually drop off and disappear.
* * * * *
Ireland (particularly the north) abounds with salmon; the most
considerable fishery is at Crarma, on the river Ban, near Coleraine.
(Some account of this fishery is mentioned in the list of the rivers,
&c. of this country.) The nets used are eighteen score, or three hundred
and sixty yards long, and are continually drawing, night and day, the
whole season (nearly four months), two sets of sixteen men each
alternately relieving one another. The best drawing is when the tide is
coming in.
The salmon are cured by being first split, and rubbed with fine salt;
and, after laying in pickle, in great tubs or reservoirs, are packed up
with layers of coarse brown Spanish salt, in casks, six of which make a
ton. These are exported to Leghorn and Venice.
* * * * *
Immediately near to Katrineberg, at a hamlet called Deje Forsa, there is
a valuable fishery for salmon, ten or twelve thousand of these fish
being taken there annually. They are, however, of a small size, the
largest of them rarely exceeding twenty pounds in weight; one with
another, indeed, they probably do not average more than six or seven
pounds a-piece.
These salmon are bred in the Wenern lake, but, in consequence of the
considerable cataracts at Deje, they never have access to the sea; from
this cause, they are said to be inferior, in point of flavour, to those
found in most other rivers.