166 N A I N A I smith s hearth, hammered on a low anvil, the nail length cut off on a chisel attached to the anvil, and the head formed by dropping the spike into a hole in a " bolster " of steel, from which enough of the spike is left projecting to form the head, which is variously flattened out. The head, in the case of clasp nails, is formed with two strokes of the hammer, while rose nails require four blows. The heads of the larger-sized nails are made with the aid of an " oliver " or mechanical hammer, and for ornamental or stamped heads " swages " or dies are employed. The conditions of life and labour among the hand nailers in England are exceedingly unsatisfactory : married women and young children of both sexes are set to work long hours in small filthy sheds attached to their dwellings, and their employment is controlled by middle men or nail-masters, who supply them with the nail-rods and pay for work done, sometimes in money and sometimes in kind on the truck system. The handicraft is, however, an expiring industry, as machine-wrought and cut nails are rapidly supplanting most corresponding kinds of hand made nails. Horse nails alone continue to be made in large measure by hand labour (at St Ninians near Stirling, as well as in the Birmingham district). These are made from the finest Swedish charcoal iron, hammered out to a fine sharp point. They must be tough and homogeneous throughout, so that there may be no danger of their breaking over and leaving portions sunk in the hoof. The credit of perfecting machinery for the making of nails belongs to American inventors, and by numerous stages the nail-making machines have arrived at a high degree of efficiency. Of late years mild steel, such as the plates employed for shipbuilding, has been largely used for machine-made nails. Without much detail it would be impossible to convey an idea of how the machine, fed with heated (to black heat only) strips of metal having a breadth and thickness sufficient for the nail to be made, shears off by means of its slicer the "nail blank," which, falling down, is firmly clutched at the neck till a heading die moving with sufficient force strikes against its upper end and forms the head, and the nail now completed is liberated, passing out through an inclined shoot. In the case of large nails the taper of the shank and point is secured by the sectional form to which the strips are rolled ; brads, sprigs, and small nails, on the other hand, are cut from uniform strips in an angular direction from head to point, the strip being turned over after each blank is cut so that the points and heads are taken from opposite sides alter nately, and a uniform taper on two opposite sides of the nail, from head to point, is secured. The machines turn out nails with wonderful rapidity, varying with the size of the nails produced from about 100 to 1000 per minute. Wire or French nails are made from round wire, which is unwound, straightened, cut into lengths, and headed by a machine the same in principle as the pin-making apparatus (see Pixs), but the pointing is accomplished by the pressure of dies in the same manner as the head is formed. Cast nails, which are cast in sand moulds by the ordinary pro cess, are used principally for horticultural purposes, and the hob-nails or tackets of shoemakers are also cast. NAIN, LE. The three brothers Le Nain, who have of late attracted much attention, occupy a peculiar position in the history of French art. Although they figure amongst the original members of the French Academy, their works show no trace of the influences which prevailed when that body was founded. Their sober execution and choice of colour recall characteristics of the Spanish school, and when the world of Paris was busy with mythological allegories, and the "heroic deeds" of the king, the three Le Nam devoted themselves chiefly to subjects of humble life such as Boys Playing Cards, The Forge, or The Peasants Noonday Meal. These three paintings, together with others, amongst which is the noble Procession in the Interior of a Church (erroneously attributed to the Le Nain), are now in the Louvre ; various others- may be found in local collections, and some fine drawings may be seen in the British Museum and in the Albertina; but their signature is rare, and is never accompanied by initials which might enable us to distinguish the work of one or other of the brothers. Their lives are lost in obscurity ; all that can be affirmed is that they were born at Laon in Picardy early in the 17th century. In 1633 Antoine, the eldest, was admitted painter at Paris; in 1648 he and his brothers Louis and Mathew were received into the Academy, and in the same year both Antoine and Louis died. Mathew lived on till 1677; he bore the title of chevalier, and painted many portraits. Mary of Medici and Mazarin were amongst his sitters, but these works (like his portrait of the unfortunate Cinq Mars, sold by auction at the Palais Royal in 1848) seem to have disappeared. Champfleury has written two works on the brothers Le Nain (1850, 1865). NAIRN", a small maritime county in the north-east of Scotland, is bounded W. and S. by Inverness, E. by Elgin, and N. by the Moray Firth. Its greatest length from north to south is about 20 miles, and its greatest breadth about 15 miles; the area is 114,400 acres, or about 179 square miles. The coast is low and sandy, and is skirted by sandbanks which render navigation dangerous. The eastern part of the seaboard district is formed of low sand-hills which extend into Morayshire. Parallel with the coast-line there is a great deposit of sand and gravel, which forms a terraced bank rising to the height of about 90 feet, and extends from 4 to 5 miles inward ; it rests on Old Red Sandstone, which sometimes protrudes on the surface. This undulating plain is bordered by a hilly region which occupies two-thirds of the county. Where it joins the plain it is skirted by a strip of Devonian associated with coarse conglomerate. The hills, some of which reach a height of about 1500 feet, are formed of granite and grey gneiss, with occasional beds of primitive limestone. Free stone is plentiful, and there is also a species of dark bluestone which is greatly valued for ornamental building. Shell-marl is obtained from several of the lochs. The only rivers are the Nairn and Findhorn, with their tributaries. The Nairn, after entering the county, flows north-east for a distance of about 30 miles, and falls into the Moray Firth at the town of Nairn. The Findhorn, which also rises in Inverness, flows north-east through the southern and hilly district of the county into Morayshire. The soil of the alluvial plain on the coast is light and porous, and has been rendered very fertile by careful cultivation. There is also some rich land on the Findhorn. The most advanced methods of agriculture are in operation, but only a small proportion of the surface is capable of tillage, scarcely more than a fifth of the total area being under crops. The hills are for the most part covered with heath or pasture suitable for sheep, intermixed with fir and larch plantations. The number of holdings in 1880 was only 392, and of these 214 did not exceed 50 acres in extent, 92 were between 50 and 100 acres, and 86 above 100 acres. According to the agricultural returns of 1882 there were 26,463 acres under cultivation, of which 9359 were under corn crops, 4871 under green crops, 10,031 under rotation grasses, and 2124 permanent pasture; 12 acres were under orchards, and 13,241 under woods. Very little wheat is grown, the prin cipal corn crops being barley or bere, 3156 acres, and oats, 5917 acres. Of the green crops 4201 acres were under turnips or swedes, and 617 under potatoes. Horses in 1F32 numbered 1292, cattle 5992 (1801 being cows or heifers in milk or in calf), sheep 17,442, and pigs 981. The valued rental of the county in 1674 was 15,162 Scots, or about 1263 sterling. Exclusive of railways, the valuation in 1881-82 was 36,217. According to the latest return the number
