ments. Sealing-wax was probably first made in India or China. The best red sealing-wax is made of shellac, Venetian turpentine and vermilion to which is often added magnesia, chalk or gypsum. In parcel-wax the main ingredient is common resin.
Seasons(sē′z’nz). The motions of the earth on which the seasons depend are explained in Earth. The chief cause of the greater heat of summer and the greater cold of winter is that the sun's rays fall more obliquely on the earth's surface in the latter season than in the former. Another cause is the greater length of the day in summer and of the night in winter. In the tropics the sun's rays always are so nearly direct that no one part of the year is sensibly colder than another. But the zone of calms, in which the rainfall is almost continuous, moves northward with the sun in the northern summer and southward in the southern summer. As the wet zone follows the sun, the regions it crosses have wet and dry seasons. In the arctic and antarctic regions spring and autumn are very short, the year dividing itself simply into a long winter and a short summer. In temperate regions the year is naturally divided into spring, summer, autumn and winter. The almanacs assume that spring begins at the vernal equinox, March 20; summer at the summer solstice, June 21; autumn at the autumnal equinox, Sept. 21; and winter at the winter solstice, Dec. 21. However, the greatest heat is reached sometime after the summer solstice, the time when the sun's rays are most nearly vertical and the day is longest. In like manner the greatest cold of winter comes after the winter solstice the time when the day is shortest and the sun's rays most oblique. The reason in the former case is that, as summer comes on, the earth itself becomes more heated; in the latter, that it keeps a part of the heat which it had got in summer, just as the warmest part of the day is a little after midday and the coldest part of the night is toward morning.
Seath, John, was born in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1844. He obtained his degree in arts at Queens College, Belfast, winning prizes and a medal. He moved to Canada in 1861, and in 1862 was appointed headmaster of Brampton High School (Ontario). For ten years (1874-84) he was head-master of the Collegiate Institute at St Catherines, and in 1884 he was appointed inspector of high schools. He is the author of a grammar for senior scholars and of a school-edition of Milton, and is senator of the University of Toronto. Mr. Seath's services to the cause of education in Ontario can scarcely be adequately valued. Especially in the cause of secondary education has he been privileged to do lasting good. He now holds the position of superintendent of education for the province.
Seat′tle, Wash., a port of entry and largest city of the state, is the county-seat of King County. Rising from the shores of Elliott Bay on the west, the city covers numerous hills, embraces Lake Union and Green Lake within its borders, and reaches on the east to Lake Washington, a beautiful body of fresh water 22 miles long and from one to three wide. The business district is substantially built in the manner of a progressive, modern city; the hills are covered with handsome homes and attractive cottages; the parks and boulevards are being made into a system of rare beauty and extent; and the scenery afforded by the combination of lakes, sound and mountains is striking and beautiful. Public buildings, prominent among which are the library and the new Federal building; schools and educational institutions, as the high schools and the University of Washington; houses of worship, with the Roman Catholic cathedral and the new First Presbyterian church as conspicuous edifices; and good hotels, theaters and club-houses are numerous. The school-system is excellent, the buildings fine, and textbooks are furnished free. Higher educational institutions consist of the University of Washington; the College of the Immaculate Conception (R. C.); Holy Name Academy (R. C.); and Seattle Seminary (M. E.). Transportation facilities, position as a distributing point both for domestic and for foreign markets, supply of fuel and cheap power and raw material for various lines of industry are causing Seattle rapidly to become a manufacturing center. Among the chief industries are ship-yards, flour and rolling mills, shingle and lumber mills, foundries, iron-works, fishcanning and woodworking.
Piers for handling ocean and land traffic line the front of Elliott Bay. The commerce of the port has advanced with astonishing rapidity, and it has grown still faster since the connection of Lakes Washington and Union with Puget Sound by means of a canal capable of floating the largest ships was completed. King County raised money for the building of this important aid to its commerce by levying a tax on a specially created assessment district, authorized by the Legislature. The canal, which gives to Seattle a freshwater harbor unexcelled, was built in accordance with plans made by the national government. The bulk of the Alaskan trade passes through Seattle. Several lines of steamships, including the largest freight-carrier in the world, ply regularly between Seattle and the Orient and other parts of the world, particularly to the countries bordering on the Pacific. The Northern Pacific and Great Northern railways have vast terminal facilities, while the Union Pacific and Chicago, Milwaukee
