_Principle of Notation by Coalwhippers, &c._--I shall feel much obliged
to any of your readers who can inform me whether the principle adopted
by the coalwhippers on the river Thames, and by the seafaring class in
general, is adopted by any other class in these islands, or particularly
in the North of Europe.
This principle may be thus explained, viz.:
1. A set of four perpendicular, equal, and equidistant straight lines
are cut by a diagonal line, which runs from _right_ to _left_; that is
to say, from the higher end of the fourth line to the lower extremity of
the first line. This diagonal then represents number 5, and completes
the scale or tally of 5.
2. A similar set of four lines are cut by another diagonal, which passes
from _left_ to _right_, or from the higher extremity of number one, to
the lower extremity of number four. The diagonal thus completes the
second score or tally for number 5.
The two fives are marked or scored separately, and the diagonals thus
form a series of alternations, which, when repeated, form a scale of
ten, the tally of the _coalwhippers_.
The "navvies" of the railroads carry this principle somewhat further.
They form a cross with two diagonals on the perpendiculars, and count
for ten; then, by repeating the process, they have a division into tens,
and count by two tens, or a score.