SPR
S P u
flick made on the fmall end of the plate, which by the Vio- lence and bend of the plant will make them all flick toge- ther till the hoop be removed. This done, the loop is to be laid upon the hoop in fuch fafh'ion as the hoop is pro- portioned : then from each fide of the hoop little fticks are to be pricked, as before dire6tcd, making as it were a kind of impaled path-way, widening it all the way as it goes farther from the hoop, and making it fo confiderably wide at the end, that any fowl that chances to come that way may be entered a confiderabte way in, before ftie perceives the fence ; by this means the bird will be enticed to go ftrait on to the fyringe, and as foon as me touches it, either with head or feet, me will be certainly caught ; and thus if the plant be ftrong enough, the largeft bird may be caught as ealily as the leaft,
When the final Icr fowls, that frequent watery places, are to be taken by this engine, it is to be made only a great deal flighter. When it is intended for fnipes, woodcocks, the like, the main plant may be of willow, hazel, or grown ozier, or any other pliant wood that will eafily bend, and will recover its ftraitnefs again. The ufe of this engine is limited to the w inter- feafon, and to times when there is much wet upon the ground. If there happen any great frofts, fo that there is no advantage to be made of the wet places firft. defcribed, then the fportfman is to look for form place where there is a confiderable fall, and where the cur- rent is not frozen, and in this place the fpringes are to be fet ; and the greater the frofts are in this cafe, the more birds there will be taken.
There is another ufe of fpringes for birds, which is th< taking, by means of them, certain birds on the boughs of trees and in hedges, which is often attended with very great fuccefs. The fportfman, for this purpofe, mull; firft mark fome tree where the birds very much refort; then fix on fome particular branch that is tolerably ftrait, and cuttin^ off all the twigs to within a foot or two of the top, he is there to bore a hole through the branch with a piercer or wimble, large enough to admit a goofe-quill. Then anotln branch is to be pitched upon, at about a foot diftance from the firft, and all its boughs are to be pared away up to a certain height. There is to be fixed to this branch packthread of half a foot long, and at the end of this is to be tied a noofe of plated horfehair. The branch to which the packthread is faftened, is then to be ftooped fo far, that the noofe may be brought through the hole in the oth branch, and faftened there by means of a little ftick foi iingers long, and hooked at the end, juft fitting the hob _ and fo brought into it, as juft to ftop the flying back of the other branch. Then there is to be placed beyond the noofe fome bait of a fruit, orinfe£r., as a cherry, a pear, or a worm, or any other thing which the bird, intended to be taken, is known to he fond of : this is to be fet in fuch a manner, that the bird can no way get at it but by fetting its feet on the fmall ftick which fupports the noofe, and flops the hole. The weight of the bird will throw down the ftick, and the bird will then be caught by the legs, and tied faft to the branch where the hole is, by the flying back of the other branch where the packthread is faftened. There is yet another method in ufe "for the taking many kinds of birds, from the partridge or pheafant to the blackbird. This Is made in the following manner, and is to be placed either on the ground, or on a tree, bufh, or hedge, according to the nature of the bird intended to be taken by it. A ftrait and even piece of willow, or fallow, is to be chofen, of about fix feet long, and of the thicknefs of a walking cane ; this is to be fharpened at one end, and ftuck down into the ground, and at .the other end there is to be faftened a fmall crook ; then two holes are to be made in the ftick, the onebig enough to admit a goofe-quill, the other fmaller; and a piece of ftick is to be chofen, which being bent will fpring back to its ftraitnefs again, fuch as holly, or the like: this mould be about three feet long, and the larger end of it is to be fixed in the larger hole of the firft ftick ; the fmaller end muft have faftened to it a packthread, at the end of which there is a noofe of horfehair: this is to he brought through the fmaller hole, and be pegged in fo flightly, as juft to prevent its flying back of itfelf. Then the fpringe, or noofe, is to be fpread on the peg, and a bait proper for the bird intended to be taken, is to be placed at a proper diftance ; fo that the bird cannot come at it but by treading on the peg, which will give way under its weight, and the ftick, to which the packthread is faftened, will fly back, and the bird will be confequently caught in the noofe, and have its legs drawn clofc to the other ftick. SPRINGING a leak, at fea, is faid of a fliip that begins to k. See the article Leak.
le,
SPROD, among the fifhermen of many parts of England, a
name given to thefalmon while in its fecond year's growth.
p^%%» Hift. Pifc. p. 189. See the article Salmon.
SI ULLERS of yarn, in our old writers, perfons that work
at the fpole, or wheel. It alfo denotes triers of yarn, to
•fee if it be well fpun, and fit for the loom. Blount.
SPUN-%, in the military art, hay twifted in ropes, very
hard, for an expedition in the winter-time ; each trooper carrying as much as he can behind him. SPUNGE, (Cycl.) fpongiQ) in botany. See the article Spon-
CIA.
This fpecies of fea plant, when burnt, yields the fame fmcll with hair or horns, or other parts of animal bodies. A pound of fpunge when weighed in a humid feafon, on drying carefully in a ftove without injuring its texture, will be reduced to eleven ounces. This quantity being diftilled by the retort in the common way, and the principles fepa- rated, and the fait and fpirit rectified, there will be found an ounce and half of a reddifli phlegm, or a fpirit (o weak, as fcarce to afford any fmell or tafte ; an ounce and half of a volatile urinous fpirit ; and an ounce, four drachms and a half of a volatile urinous fait ; half an ounce of a fetid thick oil ; half an ounce of a fix'd fait, which, befide the com- mon lixivial alkali, contains fome fea fait; and five ounces of a caput mortuum, in which the magnet difcovers fome particles of iron.
The weight of all thefe amounts to that of the dried fpunge put in, within three drachms, which is a moderate lofs from evaporation, and from fome little remains which will always ftick to the veflels. By this analyfis we find, that fpunge gives nearly as much volatile fait as raw filk, which yields the moft of any known animal fubftance j and the diffe- rence between the quantity, yielded by that fubftance and this., is not more than four grains from the ounce. Mem. Acad. Par. 1706.
A wet fpunge applied to bleeding- veflels, has been found a very fuccefsful method of flopping the effufion of blood. Vid. Phil. Tranf. N° 478. p. 33. Cotton-SpvtiGE, a name given by fome writers to a fpecies of fen fpunge very fine and light, and refembting cotton in its texture. It is found at confiderable depths, growing on the rocks in form of a coarfely- branched fhrub; it is of a greyifh colour, and very flexile ; but it is often rendred coarfe and rigid, by being covered in certain parts with that fort of tar- tarous, or cruftaceous fubftance, which fome of the antients have defcribed under the name of an akymium, and others of an adarce, and which the druggifts of the late ages have taught us to call lapis fpongia, thejpunge-ftone. It is formed itfelf of bundles of fibres, and though it has the appearance of a very open texture, yet it admits the water but very badly, and does not imbibe it in any thing like the quan- tity that the common fpunge does, nor is it, when imbibed, fo eafily preffed out again.
When examined by the microfcope, this plant appears not. at all of the ftrucfure of the common fpunge, but feems a mere affemblage of oblong and (lender fibres, like thofe of cotton or wool, not hollow, and very clofely amafTed to- gether : thefe are not capable of imbibing any other moifture than the little that can get between their interfaces in the mafs, and the yet much fmaller quantity that can enter the fubftance of the filaments themfelves. Hence it is no wonder, that this plant will not imbibe water fo readily as the common fpunge, or retain it fo well when imbibed, and yet will not yield fo to the preflure of a hand, as to part with it as that does.
The fpunge-ftonz, or tartarous Incruftation on this plant, when examined by the microfcope, is found to be very like the inemftations of ftony or fparry matter upon flicks and fhells, in fome of thofe waters which we call petrifying fprings, for the whole thicknefs of it is compofed of fcveral thin laminae j but then, as in thofe incruftatlons, each of thefe lamina? is of one fimple piece, and generally of a tranf- verfely ftriated texture. In the Jpunge-Hone each lamina is not thus ftriated, nor is indeed of one piece, but is a con- geries of numbers of fimple fmall cakes, refembling the fcales of fifties. Marfigli, Hift. Phyf. de la Mer. Loaf-SfUKGE, in natural hiftory, a name given by authors to a peculiar fpecies of fpunge of the marine kind. It is call- ed by the French eponge en mie de pain. It grows at confiderable depths to the rocks among coral, and other fea plants. Its fhape is ufually that of a common loaf, and its texture very much refembles that of the crumb of bread. It is very various in colour at different times, be- ing ufually of a fine fcarlet ; fometimes, however, it is purple, fometimes of a violet colour, and fometimes fnow white, but this more rarely than of any other colour. It is the fofteft and lighten: of all the fpunge-k'md, being better fuited to imbibe the water than any other. It would be greatly efteemed for the common ufes of fpunge, u it were produced in plenty enough to be had on the common occa- fions, but it is fcarce. When examined by the microfcope, it is found to be compofed of an aim oft infinite number of cavities and protuberances, and is compofed of an infinite fucceflion of fmall fibres, which are arranged in a very beautiful manner, and feem held together by a fort of glu- tinous matter. Marfigli, Hift. Phyf. de la Mer. Spun'ge, in the manege, is the extremity, or point of a horle's fhoe that anfwers to the heel of his foot ; upon it the calkins are made. Thick fpunge ruins the horfe's heels, and therefore ought never to be ufcd.
SPURGE,
