Linwood.
_Bull the Barrel._--What is the origin and exact meaning of the word
_bull_ in this phrase? I made a note of the passage in which I found it,
thinking that it might possibly be connected in some way with Milton's
"bullish." (See vol. iii., p. 241; vol. iv., p. 394.)
"On the third day after my departure from Zashiversk, my liquor
was at an end from the effects of a very common sort of leak--it
had been tapped too often. I could do nothing but _bull_ the
barrel, that is, put a little water into it, and so preserve at
least the appearance of vodkey."
Cochrane's _Narrative of a Pedestrian Journey through Russia and
Siberian Tartary, during the years 1820-23_. [Murray, 1824, one
vol. 8vo.] p. 225.