points abovementioned, or even without a visible change to us, yet it does not militate against the following remarks; for it has been observed by aeronauts, that different strata of air blow from opposite points at the same time. Therefore, notwithstanding a south wind may prevail at the surface of the earth, a superior stratum may blow from the north.

Such being the facts, is it not probable that a change of the wind is the cause of snow?

Now let us examine whether such a cause will produce such an effect:-The winds that blow from any of the points between the south and the west, by coming from warm climates, and passing over, perhaps, a very large tract of water, where there is a powerful evaporation going on, must possess a very great degree of humidity, and are most commonly of a temperature between 45° and 60° of Fahrenheit. The winds which blow from any of the points between the east and the north-west, by coming mostly from such high latitudes, and passing over immense fields of ice, where evaporation is undoubtedly greatly impeded, cannot be supposed to contain much water in solution, but must bring with them very great degrees of cold.

'Now let us suppose that a north wind of any temperature between 32° and 0° (which it generally is in superior strata of the atmosphere) meets a south-west wind, as before-mentioned, the consequence will be that the intense cold which accompanies the former will convert the water with which the latter is impregnated into ice; and the instantaneous application of cold is probably the reason why snow is produced in what we call flakes; for before the vapor can concentrate itself into large particles, or drops, it is arrested by the intense cold.

In this view, the formation of snow appears to be a beautiful chemical phenomenon; for, the warmer air having a greater affinity for the colder air than it has for the water which is held in solution, the water is disengaged, crystallised by the cold, and precipitated in the form of snow. It is generally observed that it is unusually cold for half an hour or an hour before the fall of snow, and warmer afterwards. Might not this be accounted for by considering that the adverse wind must meet with consistence, in effecting either a union with, or a passage through a stratum of air surcharged with water, and consequently must be in a great degree reflected back again, not in the perpendicular, but as radii from a centre, in an oblique direction, part of which must descend to the earth. And it will undoubtedly be warmer, after the stratum of north wind has either forced a passage through or effected a union with the south-west wind. Though I have not, in the preceding observations, considered the electric fluid as at all essential to the production of snow, yet I do not deny the presence of it. That snow contains the electric fluid cannot be doubted; but it does not follow that the latter is necessary to the existence of the former. We know of no substance in nature that is impervious to that subtile fluid; it seems to pervade all bodies with nearly the same facility as caloric. Therefore, though snow indicates electricity, it is probably no more than it has

acquired in its passage through an electrified atmosphere.'

Luminous and inflammable exhalation on snow. -We may perhaps ascribe the greater number of luminous exhalations that float over the surface

of the earth to the extrication and inflammation of hydrogen gas, similar to that which is so frequently elicited in coal mines, under the name of fire-damp. In the midst of the snows on the summit of the Appennines was traced, in the middle of last century, a luminous and burning exhalation, which evidently proceeded from this cause. It is clearly and accurately described by Robert More, esq., in a letter published in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlvii.; in which, among other facts of natural history, he observes that the fire among the snows on the summit of the Appennines is of the same sort with that about a little well at Brosely, in Shropshire, of which the Society has had an account; the same as of the foul air sent them from Sir James Lowther's coal pits; and the like made by a gentleman with filings of iron and oil of vitriol., The flame, when he saw it, was extremely bright, covered a surface of about three yards by two, and rose about four feet high. After great rains and snows, it is said, the whole bare patch, of about nine yards diameter, flames. The gravel, out of which it rises, at a very little depth, is quite cold. There are three of these fires in that neighbourhood; and there was one they call extinct. He went to the place to light it up again, and left it flaming. The middle of the last place is a little hollowed, and had in it a puddle of water; there were strong ebullitions of air through the water; but the air would not take fire; yet what rose through the wet and cold gravel flamed brightly. Near either of these flames, removing the surface of the gravel, that below would take fire from lighted matches.

SNOW, in sea affairs, is generally the largest of all two-masted vessels employed by Europeans, and the most convenient for navigation. The sails and rigging on the mainmast and foremast of a snow are exactly similar to those on the same masts in a ship; only that there is a smaller mast behind the mainmast of the former, which carries a sail nearly resembling the mizen of a ship. The foot of this mast is fixed on a block of wood on the quarter-deck abaft the mainmast; and the head of it is attached to the aftertop of the maintop. The sail, which is called the trysail, is extended from its mast towards the stern of the vessel. When the sloops of war are rigged as snows, they are furnished with a horse, which answers the purpose of the trysail-mast; the fore part of the sail being at tached by rings to the said horse, in different places of its height.

The SNOW-PLOUGH, in rural economy, is a contrivance made use of in Sweden, and other northern countries, for the purpose of clearing roads from snow. It consists of a shaft, to which the horses are yoked, usually two abreast, and one before. The sides are constructed of three or four deals, well jointed and nailed together, having more or less height, according as the snow is more or less deep, as from three to four feet. The length is usually about

fifteen feet, and two iron bars are nailed to the bottom, to make it slide with greater facility. It has also a box for the purpose of being loaded, to keep it down. It may have any breadth, from fifteen to twenty feet, according as the snow may want clearing. There is a representation of an implement of this kind, in the first volume of Communications to the Board of Agriculture. SNOW-STONE, in mineralogy, a name given to a very beautiful stone found in America, of which the Spaniards are very fond, making it into tables and other ornaments in their houses. Alonso Barba, who had seen much of it, tells us that it is found in the province of Atacama, usually in pieces of four feet long, and four or five inches broad, so that they are forced to join them in the working. Its general thickness is about two inches. It has a great variety of colors, which form clouds and variegations of a very beautiful kind. The principal colors are red, yellow, green, black, and white. The white is generally formed into spots on the very blackest parts of the mass, and is so beautifully disposed that it represents snow falling in all its whiteness upon a jetty

surface.

SNOWDON, a celebrated mountain of the county of Caernarvon, Wales, remarkable for the extent of the ridge of hills with which it is connected and forms the summit. The whole of these mountains take the name of Snowdon, and extend to the confines of Merionethshire. By the Welsh they are called the mountains of Eryri, and, according to an ancient proverb, were considered to be so extensive and productive as to be capable of yielding sufficient pasture for all the herds in Wales, if collected together. Camden says that they may be properly termed the British Alps; for, besides their great height, they are also no less inaccessible, by reason of the steepness of their rocks, than the Alps themselves; and they all encompass one hill, which, far exceeding the rest in height, does so tower its head aloft, that it seems, I shall not say to threaten the sky, but to thrust its summit into it. It harbours snow continually, being throughout the year covered with it, or rather with a hardened crust of snow; and hence the British name of Craig Eryri, and the English one of Snowdon.' The highest peak of Snowdon is elevated, according to the trigonometrical survey, 3571 feet above the level of the sea. But this is still nearly 2000 feet below the line of perpetual snow. The snow, however, begins to fall in November, and

is seldom melted till the middle of June. Snowdon, though the highest mountain in Wales, is far from being the most picturesque in its form. Cader Iris, Molwyn, and Arran, in North Wales, and Cader Arthur, near Brecknock, present a much bolder outline. The usual mode of ascent is by Llyn Cawellyn, about midway between Beddgellert and Caernarvon.

The view from

the summit is beyond measure grand and extensive; and in a clear day, and when the mountain is free of clouds, which, however, is but seldom the case, the eye can trace the hills of Scotland, with part of the coast. the high mountains of Westmoreland and Cumberland, and some of the hills of Lancashire; even the county of Wicklow is on some occasions partly visible,

and the whole of the Isle of Man. This mountain was held sacred by the ancient Britons. SNUB, n. s. & v. a. Rather snib. See SNEAP, SNEB, SNÍB. Ajag; a knot in wood; to check; reprimand; nip.

Lifting up his dreadful club on high, All armed with ragged snubs, and knotty grain, Him thought at first encounter to have slain. Faerie Queene.

Near the sea-shores, the heads and boughs of trees run out far to landward; but toward the seз been pared or shaven off. are so snubbed by the winds, as if their boughs had Ray on the Creation.

SNUDGE, v. n. Dan. sniger. To lie idle, close, or snug.

Now he will fight it out, and to the wars;
Now eat his bread in peace,
And smudge in quiet; now he scorns increase;
Now all day spares.

Herbert. Belg. snuffen (which is also used metaphorically for a sneer); Swed. snufwa. To draw in with the breath; scent; take off the consumed part of a candle: to snort; sniff in contempt; sneer: the mucus of the nose (obsolete): hence the powdered tobacco taken into the nose; the excrescence or refuse of á candle; a contemptuous sneer: the snuffbox and snuffers are sufficiently known to snuffe (Belg. snuffelen) is to speak through the nose. Ye said, what a weariness is it, and ye have snuffed at it. Mal. ii. 13.

SNUFF, v.a., v. n. & n. s.)
SNUFF BOX, n. s.
SNUFFERS,
SNUFFLE, v. n.

A water-spaniel came down the river, shewing that he hunted for a duck; and, with a snuffling grace, disdaining that his smelling force could not as well prevail through the water as through the air, waited with his eye to see whether he could espy the duck's getting up again.

Sidney.

To hide me from the radiant sun, and solace

I' the' dungeon by a snuff. Shakspeare. Cymbeline.
To be her mistress' mistress.
The late queen's gentlewoman!
This candle burns not clear: 'tis I must snuff it,
And out it goes.
Id. Henry VIII.
What hath been seen
Either in snuffs or packings of the duke's,
Or the hard rain which both of them have borne
Against the old kind king. Id. King Lear.
My snuff and loathed part of nature should
Burn itself out.

Id.

A heifer will put up her nose, and snuff in the air, against rain.

But dearest heart, and dearer image, stay!

Bacon.

Alas! true joys at best are dreams enough: Though you stay here, you pass too fast away; For even at first life's taper is a snuff.

Donne.

If the liquor be of a close and glutinous consistency, it may burn without any snuff, as we see in camphire, and some other bituminous substances; and most of the ancient lamps were of this kind, because none have been found with such wicks.

Wilkins.

dressed, our lights snuffed, and our religion more ac Against a communion-day our lamps should be

tive.

Taylor.

Addison.

A torch, snuff, and all, goes out in a moment, when dipped into the vapour. Id. on Italy. O'er all the blood-hound boasts superior skill, To scent, to view, to turn, and boldly kill! His fellows vain alarms rejects with scorn, True to the master's voice, and learned horn: His nostrils oft, if ancient fame sing true, Trace the sly felon through the tainted dew: Once snuffed, he follows with unaltered aim, Nor odours lure him from the chosen game; Deep-mouthed he thunders, and inflamed he views, Springs on relentless, and to death pursues. Tickel. Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew, A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; The gnomes direct, to every atom just, The pungent grains of titillating dust.

Pope.

Sir Plume, of amber snuff box justly vain, And the nice conduct of a clouded cane. Id. When you have snuffed the candle, leave the snuffers open. Swift's Directions to the Butler. My nag's greatest fault was muffing up the air about Brackdenstown, whereby he became such a lover of liberty that I could scarce hold him in.

Swift.

Id.

If a gentleman leaves a snuff box on the table, and goeth away, lock it up as part of your vails. Id.

6

SNUFF is chiefly made of tobacco, other matters being only added to give it a more agreeable scent, &c. The kinds of snuff, and their several names are innumerable, and new ones are daily invented; so that it would be difficult to give a detail of them. We shall only say that there are three principal sorts; the first granulated; the second an impalpable powder; and the third the bran, or coarse part remaining after sifting the second sort. Every professed, inve terate, and incurable snuff-taker,' says lord Stanhope, at a moderate computation, takes one pinch in ten minutes. Every pinch, with the agreeable ceremony of blowing and wiping the nose, &c., consumes a minute and a half. One minute and a half out of every ten, allowing sixteen hours to a snuff-taking day, amounts to two hours and twenty-four minutes a day, or one day out of every ten. This amounts to thirty-six days and a half in a year. Hence, if the practice be persisted in forty years, two entire years of the

Lie snug, and hear what criticks say. Swift. SNYDERS, or SNEYDERS (Francis). A ce lebrated painter, was born in 1579 at Antwerp, where he became a disciple of Henry Van Balen. His first subjects were fruits and still life; but afterwards his genius prompted him to paint animals, in which line he surpassed all his contemporaries. He studied nature accurately, and his objects were copied with equal exactness and judgment. It has been said that he went to Italy, and improved himself there by the works of Castiglione, which is palpably erroneous; for Snyders was an old man when that artist began to be known. The probability is, that Snyders never was out of his own country, being constantly employed at Antwerp and Brussels, in the numerous commissions which he received. His usual subjects were huntings, and combats of wild beasts; also kitchens, with fruit and vegetables, and dead game. Every animal had an expression suitable to the species or situation ; the landscape was always designed in a fine taste, and the whole composition was admirable. When his designs required figures of a larger size they were generally inserted by Rubens or Jordaens, which gave an additional value to his works. His touch is light, yet firm; his style of composition rich, and full of variety; his coloring remarkable for truth, nature, warmth, and force; his animals are designed in a grand taste, their actions, attitudes, and all their motions, having life, spirit, and expression; and he was so exact that he gave the appearance of reality to the skin and hair. The archduke Albert, governor of the Netherlands, appointed Snyders his principal painter; the king of Spain adorned his palaces with several of his hunting pieces, and so did the elector palatine. Rubens, though he painted animals and landscapes so well himself, employed Snyders frequently to paint the backgrounds of his pictures, as also did Jordaens. This artist etched sixteen plates of animals in a

masterly style; but they are, like his pictures, very rare. He died at Antwerp in 1657.

SO, adv. Sax. ræ, rpa; Belg. soo; Teut. and Goth. so. There is also a Hindoo so, and Pers. sa. In like manner; in such a manner; thus. It answers to as, either preceding or following; noting comparison; provided that; often a mere expletive at other times so returns the sense of a word or sentence going before, and is used to avoid repetition: as, the two brothers were valiant, but the eldest was more so;' that is, 'more valiant.' The French article le is often used in the same manner. Johnson truly says, this mode of expression is not to be used but in familiar language, nor even in that to be commended.

Why is his chariot so long in coming?

Judges v. 28. The god, though loth, yet was constrained t' obey: For longer time than that no living wight Below the earth might suffered be to stay: So back again him brought to living light.

Faerie Queene. Ready are the' appellant and defendant, The armourer and his man, to enter the lists; So please your highness to behold the fight.

Shakspeare. There is Percy; if your father will do me any honour, so; if not, let him kill the next Percy himself. Id. Id. Othello. So then the Volscians stand but as at first, Ready, when time shall prompt them, to make road Upon 's again. Id. Coriolanus.

I would not have thee linger in thy pain: So 80.

If he set industriously and sincerely to perform the commands of Christ, he can have no ground of doubting but it shall prove successful to him; and so all that he hath to do is to endeavour by prayer, and use of the means, to qualify himself for this blessed condition. Hammond's Fundamentals.

It leaves instruction, and so instructors, to the sobriety of the settled articles and rule of the church. Holyday. Cowley.

The fat with plenty fills my heart, The lean with love makes me too so.

There is something equivalent in France and Scotland; so as 'tis a very hard calumny upon our soil to affirm that so excellent a fruit will not grow here.

Temple. Since then our Arcite is with honour dead, Why should we mourn that he so soon is freed. Dryden.

O goddess! tell what I would say,
Thou know'st it, and I feel too much to pray;
So grant my suit, as I enforce my might,
In love to be thy champion.

Dryden's Knight's Tale. He was great ere fortune made him so. Dryden. How sorrow shakes him!

So, now the tempest tears him up by the roots,
And on the ground extends the noble ruin.

Id.

So so; it works: now, mistress, sit you fast. Id. We may be certain that man is not a creature that hath wings; because this only concerns the manner of his existence; and we, seeing what he is, may certainly know that he is not so or so. Locke.

I shall minutely tell him the steps by which I was brought into this way, that he may judge whether I proceeded rationally, if so be any thing in my example is worth his notice.

Id.

According to the multifariousness of this immutability, so are the possibilities of being. Norris. I viewed in my mind, so far as I was able, the beginning and progress of a rising world.

Burnet's Theory of the Earth. One may as well say that the conflagration shall be only national, as to say that the deluge was so. Burnet.

Rowe.

Here then exchange we mutually forgiveness: So may the guilt of all my broken vows, My perjuries to thee, be all forgotten; As here my soul acquits thee of my death, As here I part without an angry thought. Too much of love thy hapless friend has proved, Too many giddy foolish hours are gone; May the remaining few know only friendship: So thou, my dearest, truest, best Alicia, Vouchsafe to lodge me in thy gentle heart, A partner there; I will give up mankind. Upon our first going into a company of strangers,

Id.

cur benevolence or aversion rises towards several particular persons, before we have heard them speak, or so much as know who they are.

Addison's Spectator.

I laugh at every one, said an old cynick, who laughs at me. Do you so? replied the philosopher; then you live the merriest life of any man in Athens. Addison. They are beautiful in themselves, and much more so in the noble language peculiar to that great poet. Id. So the doctrine be but wholesome and edifying, though there should be a want of exactness in the manner of speaking or reasoning, it may be overlooked. Atterbury.

An astringent is not quite so proper, where relaxing the urinary passages necessary. Arbuthnot. Deliver us from the nauseous repetition of as and so, which some so so writers, I may call them so, are continually sounding in our ears.

Felton on the Classicks.

Thou, whose life's a dream of lazy pleasure, 'Tis all thy business, business how to shun; To bask thy naked body in the sun, Suppling thy stiffened joints with fragrant oil; Then in thy spacious garden walk a while, To suck the moisture up and soak it in.

Id.

Let a drunkard see that his health decays, his estate wastes, yet the habitual thirst after his cups drives him to the tavern, though he has in his view the loss of health and plenty; the least of which he confesses is far greater than the tickling of his palate with a glass of wine, or the idle chat of a soaking club. Locke. Wormwood, put into the brine you soak your corn in, prevents the birds eating it. Mortimer. Rain, soaking into the strata which lie near the surface, bears with it all such moveable matter as Woodward.

occurs.

SOAP, n. s. Sax. rape; Lat. sapo. A SOAP'BOILER. substance used in washing, made commonly of a lixivium of vegetable alkaline ashes and some unctuous substance. See below. The soapboiler is the manufacturer of this useful article.

He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap. Malachi. Soap-ashes are much commended, after the soapboilers have done with them, for cold or sour lands. Mortimer. As rain-water diminishes their salt, so the moistening of them with chamber-lee or soap-suds adds thereto. Id. A soapboiler condoles with me on the duties on castle-soap. Addison's Spectator. A bubble blown with water, first made tenacious by dissolving a little soap in it, after a while will appear tinged with a great variety of colors. Newton's Opticks. Soap-earth is found in great quantity on the land near the banks of the river Hermus, seven miles from Smyrna. Woodward.

Soap is a mixture of a fixed alkaline salt and oil; its virtues are cleansing, penetrating, attenuating, and resolving; and any mixture of any oily substance with salt may be called a soap.

Arbuthnot on Aliments.

SOAP is a composition of caustic fixed alkaline salt, and oil, sometimes hard and dry, sometimes soft and liquid; much used in washing and whitening linens, and by dyers and fullers. Soap may be made by several methods, which, however, all depend upon the same principle. The soap which is used in medicine is made without heat. See CHEMISTRY, Index.

In manufactures, where large quantities of it are prepared, soap is made with heat. A lixivium of quicklime and soda is made, but it is less concentrated than that above referred to, and only so much that it can sustain a fresh egg. A part of this lixivium is even to be diluted and mixed with an equal weight of oil of olives. The mixture is to be put on a gentle fire, and agitated, that the union may be accelerated. When the mixture begins to unite well, the rest of the lixivium is to be added to it; and the whole is to be digested with a very gentle heat, till the soap be completely made. A trial is to be made of it, to examine whether the just proportion or oil and alkali has been observed. Good soap of this kind ought to be firm, and very white when cold; not subject to become moist by exposure to air, and entirely miscible with pure water, to