arth, and
whose shadows at noon fall in contrary directions.

ANT ISLANDS. Generally found on Spanish charts as _Hormigas_.

ANVIL. The massive block of iron on which armourers hammer forge-work.
It is also an archaism for the handle or hilt of a sword: thus
Coriolanus--

"Here I clip
The anvil of my sword."

It is moreover a little narrow flag at the end of a lance.

ANYHOW. Do the duty by all means, and at any rate or risk: as Nelson,
impatient for getting to Copenhagen in 1801, exclaimed--

"Let it be by the Sound, by the Belt, or anyhow, only lose not an
hour."

ANY PORT IN A STORM signifies contentment with whatever may betide.

APAGOGE. A mathematical progress from one proposition to another.

APE, OR SEA-APE. The long-tailed shark. Also, an active American seal.

APEEK. A ship drawn directly over the anchor is _apeek_: when the
fore-stay and cable form a line, it is _short stay apeek_; when in a
line with the main-stay, _long stay apeek_. The anchor is _apeek_ when
the cable has been sufficiently hove in to bring the ship over
it.--_Yards apeek._ When they are topped up by contrary lifts. (_See_
PEAK.)

APERTAE. Ancient deep-waisted ships, with high-decked forecastle and
poop.

APERTURE, in astronomy. The opening of a telescope tube next the
object-glass, through which the rays of light and image of the object
are conveyed to the eye. It is usually estimated by the clear diameter
of the object-glass.

APEX. The summit or vertex of anything; as the upper point of a
triangle.

APHELION. That point in the orbit of a planet or comet which is most
remote from the sun, and at which the angular motion is slowest; being
the end of the greater elliptic axis. The opposite of _perihelion_.

APHELLAN. The name of the double star {a} Geminorum, better known as
Castor.

APHRACTI. Ancient vessels with open waists, resembling the present
Torbay-boats.

APLANATIC. That refraction which entirely corrects the aberration and
colour of the rays of light.

APLETS. Nets for the herring-fishery.

APLUSTRE. A word applied in ancient vessels both to the ornament on the
prow and to the streamer or ensign on the stern. Here, as in the
rudder-head of Dutch vessels frequently, the dog-vane was carried to
denote the direction of the wind.

APOBATHRAE. Ancient gang-boards from the ship to the quays.

APOCATASTASIS. The time in which a planet returns to the same point of
the zodiac whence it