546 PISTOLE PITCH which is cylindro-conical, weighs 250 grains. The United States navy also uses a single-bar- rel pistol, of 5 in. calibre, with metallic car- tridge ammunition. PISTOLE, the name formerly applied in sev- eral countries of Europe to gold coins of vari- ous values. It was equivalent in Spain to a quarter doubloon ($3 90). In Germany it was sometimes applied to coins bearing the name of the state or sovereign who coined them, and worth about $3 TO. The old Italian pistole or doppia was worth from $3 09 to $7 02. Of late years, and especially since the introduction of new systems in Spain and Italy, the name is seldom heard. PITAVAL, Francois Gayot de, a French author, born in Lyons in 1673, died in Paris in 1743. He left the army to become an advocate, and compiled many works, the principal of which is Causes celebres et interessantes (20 vols., Paris, 1734-'43), of which continuations appeared by Francois Richer (22 vols., Amsterdam, 1772- '88 ; German translation, 4 vols., Jena, 1792-'5, with a preface by Schiller). Numerous abridg- ments and translations have appeared. A simi- lar compilation has appeared in Leipsic since 1842, under the title Der neue Pitaval ; the first 30 volumes were edited by Hitzig and Haring, and subsequent volumes by Vollert, the total work comprising in 1875 nearly 50 vols. PITCAIRN ISLAM), an island of the Pacific ocean, in lat. 25 3' S., Ion. 130 8' W. ; extreme length about 2J m., breadth 1 m. It is elevated, the greatest height being nearly 2,500 ft. above the sea, and is surrounded by cliffs which pre- clude the possibility of landing except in two or three spots. The temperature ranges be- tween 59 and 90, and the climate is remark- ably healthy. There are a few small streams, but they are liable to fail at certain seasons, when the inhabitants depend upon water pre- served in tanks. The soil is rich and fertile, and the island is everywhere thickly clothed with a luxuriant vegetation. Several tropical fruits and vegetables are indigenous, and many others, together with some of those belonging to temperate regions, have been successfully introduced. All the domestic animals except the horse have also been introduced, and goats are very numerous in the more inaccessible parts of the island. Pitcairn island was dis- covered by Oarteret in 1767, and named after one of his officers who was the first to see it. Its chief interest, however, is derived from the mutiny of the Bounty, a vessel sent by the British government to convey plants of the breadfruit tree from Tahiti to the West Indies. (See BLIGH, WILLIAM.) The Bounty arrived at Tahiti at a wrong season for transplanting, and was compelled to remain there six months, during which time the crew formed connec- tions with the natives. A few days after sail- ing, April 28, 1789, the crew mutinied, and when they had sent Oapt. Bligh and those who would not join them adrift in an open boat, they bore away for Tahiti. Here one of the crew named Christian and eight others, after the rest had landed, induced nine native women and nine men to come aboard, when they put to sea and were not heard of for many years. In 1808 Capt. Folger of Nantucket, while on a sealing voyage in the Pacific, called at Pitcairn island, and, having supposed it to be uninhab- ited, was much surprised to see a canoe with two men of a light brownish complexion ap- proach his vessel, and request in good English that a rope should be thrown to them. They were descendants of the remnant of the long lost crew. Determined to cut off all traces of themselves, when the mutineers reached Pit- cairn island they ran the Bounty ashore, where they stripped and burned her. Christian and his associates took the Tahitian women as wives and reduced the men to bondage. They appear to have got on well for a time, made good houses, and cultivated a considerable ex- tent of ground; but at length the slaves re- belling, they were forced to destroy them all, not however before several of the masters had been killed in the affray, among whom was Christian. Within the next few years several of the others died, and at the time of Capt. Folger's visit Adams was the only survivor of the mutineers. (See ADAMS, JOHN.) He drew up a simple code of laws by which the island- ers are still governed, and to which they are very much attached. They are an honest, kind-hearted, religious people, of very simple habits. In 1856, the island being too small for them, the whole community was removed, by some well-wishers in England and Australia, to Norfolk island; but the greater part of them were dissatisfied with the change, and early in 1859 two families, numbering 17 per- sons, returned to Pitcairn island. PITCH (Gr. Trtrra), a black resinous substance, commonly known as black pitch, constituting the residuum when the volatile portions of tar are driven off by heat. It is soft and sticky when warm, but becomes solid and brittle when cold. It is one of the products of the pine tree classed in commerce as naval stores, and is largely used in ship building to pay the seams and thus render them impervious to water. For this purpose it is mixed with a small por- tion of oil, to render it less brittle. It is also used in medicine as a mild stimulant and tonic, and is administered in pills for cutaneous dis- eases and for piles. In Europe pitch is manu- factured chiefly from the tar produced in north- ern regions from pinus sylvestris (Linn.) and P. Ledebourii (Endl.) or larix Siberica (Ledeb). These trees form the vast forests of arctic Eu- rope and Asia. The pitch used in this country is all made from the distillation of tar furnished by various species of pine, especially pinua palustris of the southern states, from which immense quantities are prepared in North Caro- lina and the southern parts of Virginia. In New Jersey, New England, and Pennsylvania west of the Alleghany mountains, tar and pitch are made from pinus rigida, or pitch pine,
