l adaptation _nautical_ is included (which see).

ASTROSCOPIA. Skill in examining the nature and properties of stars with
a telescope.

ASTRUM, OR ASTRON. Sirius, or the Dog-star. Sometimes applied to a
cluster of stars.

ASWIM. Afloat, borne on the waters.

ASYLUM. A sanctuary or refuge; a name given to a benevolent institution
at Greenwich, for 800 boys and 200 girls, orphans of seamen and marines.
The Royal Military Asylum is also an excellent establishment of a
similar nature at Chelsea, besides numerous others.

ASYMMETRY. A mathematical disproportion. The relation of two quantities
which have no measure in common.

ASYMPTOTES. Lines which continually approximate each other, but can
never meet.

ATABAL. A Moorish kettle-drum.

ATAGHAN. _See_ YATAGHAN.

AT ANCHOR. The situation of a vessel riding in a road or port by her
anchor.

ATAR. A perfume of commerce, well known as atar-of-roses; atar being the
Arabic word for fragrance, corrupted into _otto_.

A'TAUNTO, OR ALL-A-TAUNT-O. Every mast an-end and fully rigged.

ATEGAR. The old English hand-dart, named from the Saxon _aeton_, to
fling, and _gar_, a weapon.

ATHERINE. A silvery fish used in the manufacture of artificial pearls;
it is 4 or 5 inches long, inhabits various seas, but is taken in great
numbers in the Mediterranean. It is also called _argentine_.

ATHILLEDA. The rule and sights of an astrolabe.

ATHWART. The transverse direction; anything extending or across the line
of a ship's course.--_Athwart hawse_, a vessel, boat, or floating lumber
accidentally drifted across the stem of a ship, the transverse position
of the drift being understood.--_Athwart the fore-foot_, just before the
stem; ships fire a shot in this direction to arrest a stranger, and make
her bring-to.--_Athwart ships_, in the direction of the beam; from side
to side: in opposition to _fore-and-aft_.

ATHWART THE TIDE. _See_ ACROSS THE TIDE.

ATLANTIC. The sea which separates Europe and Africa from the Americas,
so named from the elevated range called the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.

ATLANTIDES. The daughters of Atlas; a name of the Pleiades.

ATLAS. A large book of maps or charts; so called from the character of
that name in ancient mythology, son of Uranus, and represented as
bearing the world on his back. Also the Indian satin of commerce.

ATMOSPHERE. The ambient air, or thin elastic fluid which surrounds the
globe, and gradually diminishing in gravity rises to